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NEW YORK, BROCKTON 
AND BOSTON CANAL 

ITS IMPORTANCE TO MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRIES 
AND GREAT VALUE TO THE NATION 


SECOND EDITION-READ PREFACE 


TC 625 
,N4 A3 
1908 
Copy 1 


1908 





Compliments of 







l Brockton. Mass. 















































































































































Copyrighted 

1907 


Quebec 


ABOVE SEA LEVEL 602 FT. 


IELOW SEA LEVI 
V 407 FT. 


100-- 

200 - 

300- 

400-feet- 


IELOW SEA LEVEL 


B*' 1 ' 


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Marquette 


Dlllutll 


Vshlaad^ 


^laucUesteiT 

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1 906 CROP' 
CORN 64,575|0C 
OATS 43,747,6 
WHEATVb 644,9 


Menom inee 1, 


PRODUCT 
1 TONS 


1 Q06 CROPS 
OATS 91,630,000 BU. 
CORN 60,106,732 BU, 


jwpwgSS 


«»sr 


1906 CROPS 
OATS 46,410,000 BU. 
WHEAT 41,956,400 BU. 


27 LudiagtoO 


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BARABOO 4 

(iron) ** 
DISTRICT*** 

w.* c °r ## 


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CORN 373,275,000 BU. 
OATS 1*0,777,000 BU, 


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1906 CROPS 
CORN 249,782,500 BU 
OATS 72,275,000 BU. 
WHEAT 52,288,692 Bp 


Des Koine & 


HENNEPIN CAN, 


•VTheeVi^g 


Council Bluffs 


Omulia 


9 Co\un>b us 


>ROOUCT 
jO TONS 


1906 CROPS 
CORN 347,169,585 BU 
OATC ‘07,763,300 BU 
WHEAT 38,535,900 BU. 


Burlington < 
Pt.Madison -4 


1905 COAL PRODUCT 
6,798,609 TONS 


BaytoB 




p COAL PROOUCT 
3,888,378 TONS 


Decatur 


Quincy 


6 CROPS 
53,893,(767 B> 
5,196,000 BU 
48,080,925 B 


CORN ' 

OATS 5 1 
WHEAT 




1905 COAL PRODUCT 
38,434,363 TONS 




Kansas City 


PRODUCT 

,2 TONS 


Louisville. 




Evansville 


» L product 
,52$ IONS 


,1c PRODUCT 


Bowling 


'Cairo 


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ATER 


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100 


TO AMD MOM AtLANTHC 


Copyright, 1907, New York, Brockton & Boston Canal &i Transportation Co. 


JS/L 


Winnlpeg 


1 eoe crops 

OATS 72,011,1 60 BU. 
WHEAT 55,801 ,591 BU. 


NORTH 

1906 CROPS 
WHEAT 77,896,000 BU. 
OATS 40.486.6C8 BU. 


ELEVATIONS OF GREAT LAKES 

Ti&L SEA LEVEL ^SBI ET. 

jEEiL/r* - 

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200 


Compiled Expressly for 

NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON 
CANAL & TRANSPORTATION CO. 

by 

E.B. & C.L. Hayward, Civil Engineers. 
Brockton, Mass. 


1906 CROPS 
CORN 195,075,000 BU. 
WHEAT 81 ,830,611 BU. 
OATS 24,780,000 BU. 

1906 COAL PRODUCT 
6,423,979 TON8 


To?® 


ska’ 




Jefferson City 


Vn 


X 


# 

///*■• 


Canals, in Operation 
Canals, Projected 




1906 CROPS 
CORN 228,622,600 BU. 
WHEAT 31,734.900 BU 
OATS 14,685.608 BU, 


C.J Peters & Son Co., Map Makers Boston. 


1906 COAL SHIPMENTS TO BOSTON 

BITUMINOUS ANTHRACITE 

PORT 

Baltimore, 

Philadelphia, 

Norfolk, Va., 

Newport News, Va., 

Weehawken, N. J. 

Perth Amboy, N. J. 

South Amboy, N. J. 

Guttenburg, N. J. 

Hoboken, N. J. 

Port Johnson, N. J. 

Edge water, N. J. 

Other Domestic Ports, 

Foreign Ports, 

By All Rail, 

Total, 


TONS 

760,525 

TONS 

None 

589,059 

595,091 

587,218 

None 

799,844 

None 

2,928 

105,634 

1,516 

175,288 

7,806 

164,598 

1,540 

148,927 

None 

134,816 

None 

134,462 

None 

100,579 

23,673 

71,279 

658,072 

None 

87,251 

29,005 

3,517,916 

1,659,679 













































































































































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SECOND EDITION-READ PREFACE 



IShe 

NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND 

r i 

BOSTON CANAL 


ITS IMPORTANCE TO MASSACHUSETTS 

INDUSTRIES 


AND GREAT VALUE TO THE NATION 


1908 







Preface to Second Edition. 


The first edition of the Booklet containing information relative to the 
proposed New York, Brockton and Boston Canal, was exhausted very quickly 
after its issue. 

Requests for copies coming from all parts of the United States having been 
so numerous during the past year, a second edition is issued by direction of 
the Canal Company. 

Attention is called to the additional article on “A proposed Rhode Island 
Canal” on page 48, and accompanying letter of Congressman William S. Greene, 
as also abstract from speech of Congressman J. Hampton Moore of Pennsylvania, 
in the House of Representatives, on May 30, 1908, on ‘‘Atlantic Coast Inland 
Waterways,” accompanied by letter of Brigadier-General Alexander Mackenzie, 
Chief of Engineers, United States Army, relative to estimated cost to construct 
the proposed Atlantic Coast System of Waterways, extending from Boston, 
Massachusetts, to Beaufort, North Carolina. 

Loyed E. Chamberlain, 
Edward B. Mellen. 

Brockton, Mass., October 31, 1908. 



By trap‘^" r 

NOV 18 190*0 



OFFICERS 


OF THE 

New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and 
Transportation Company 


Elected February 5, 1907 
Same Officers, October, 1908 


President 

JOHN J. WHIPPLE 

Treasurer Clerk 

HERBERT E. GUY THOMAS A. NORRIS 


DIRECTORS 


JOHN J. WHIPPLE 
ROBERT COOK 
MAYNARD A. DAVIS 
WALLACE C. FLAGG 
JABEZ W. FREDERICK 
GEORGE B. FRENCH 
HERBERT E. GUY 

PORTUS B. 


BRADFORD E. JONES 
EMERY M. LOW 
EDWARD B. MELLEN 
KENNETH McLEOD 
THOMAS A. NORRIS 
ELMER C. PACKARD 
MOSES A. PACKARD 
HANCOCK 


Attorneys, CHAMBERLAIN & FLETCHER, Brockton, Mass. 






(T ontinomveattlr of 

% 



ii’lui.'ii'lt.'i 


♦ 


WHEREAS, by chapter five hundred and thirty-two of tne Acta of the year one 
thousand nine hundred and six it ia provided that John J. Whipple, Herbert X. Guy, Brad¬ 
ford E. Jones and certain other persons therein mentioned, ahall be and are made a corpo¬ 
ration by the name of the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company; 

and 

WHEREAS, the said New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company 
has complied with all the requirements of law prescribed by said chapter five hundred and 
thirty-two, and has duly filed evidence of organiiation as required by section twelve of 
ci.apter one hundred and nine of the Revised Laws; and 

WHEREAS, said chapter five hundred and thirty-two of the Acts of the year one 
thousand nine hundred and six has been submitted for acceptance to the voters of the cities 
and towns through which extends the location of the canal authorised thereby; and it ap¬ 
pears from the official returns of said cities and towns, made to the office of the Secre¬ 
tary of the Commonwealth in accordance with law, that said chapter has been accepted by a 
majority of the voters voting thereon: 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLI A.V OLIN, Secretary of*the Commonwealth, under and pur¬ 
suant to the authority Of said act, and of the general laws applicable thereto, do hereby 
certify that the said John J. Whipple, Herbert E. Guy, Bradford E. Jones, and the other 

persons comprising the list of incorporators set forth in said chapter five hundred and 

\ 

thirty-two, are legally established as and are made an existing corporation under the name 
of the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company, with all the privi¬ 
leges and subject to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities set forth in said chapter 
five hundred and thirty-two and in all general laws now or hereafter in force, so far as 
the same are applicable thereto. 



WITNESS mi' official signature hereunto subscribed, 
and the Croat Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
hereunto affixed, this twenty-eighth day of November in 
the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and six. 

JmJzcM* 


Secretary of the Commonwealth. 


Reduced fac-simile of Certificate of Incorporation of the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company. 






INDEX 


Officers of the “New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Co.” ... 3 

The Canal Proposition. 7 

The Fore River Shipbuilding Works.17 

Prophecy of Col. Josiah H. Benton, Jr.17 

The Key to the Transportation Problem.17 

Prospective Business for the Canal.19 

1906 Shipments of the Great Lake Ports.22 

Property Values to be Created by the Canal.23 

Letter of Congressman James H. Davidson, of Wisconsin.23 

Importance of Cheap Transportation.24 

Development of Waterways.25 

How to Stimulate Massachusetts Industries.28 

Exports of Wheat, Corn and Oats, from Boston and New York.32 

Governor Curtis Guild, Jr., on the Transportation, Commercial and Industrial Situation in 

Massachusetts.33 

Cost of Transportation per Ton-mile . . ,.38 

Massachusetts’ Handicap.39 

How the Canal would Help Railroads.39 

Estimated Cost of the Canal.42 

Abstract from Speech of Hon. J. Hampton Moore on Atlantic Coast Canals . . . .42 

Value of the Canal to the State and Nation.45 

Why the Old Cape Cod Canal has Never been Built . . . ,.45 

Opinion of Capt. George W. Eldridge, the noted Hydrographer and Marine Chart Publisher, 

on the Canal.46 

A Proposed Rhode Island Canal.49 

New York’s New $101,000,000 Erie Canal.52 

St. Mary’s Falls (“Soo”) Canal, Michigan.55 

The Chicago Ship Canal.58 

The Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal.60 

The Georgian Bay (Canada) Canal Project.63 

Foreign Examples of Canal Construction ... . 65 

The Manchester Ship Canal.65 

Regulation of Railroad Rates.69 

James J. Hill, President of the Great Northern Railway, on the Transportation Problem . 72 

President Roosevelt on Transportation “Remedy” in Waterways.75 

Canal Statistics. 71 

Act to Incorporate the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Co. . . 78 



Brockton, Mass., June 1, 1907. 


To John J. Whipple, President, 

New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and 
Transportation Company. 

Sir: In compliance with the vote of the Directors of the 
New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation 
Company, authorizing the undersigned to compile a pamphlet 
of general information pertaining to the project for which said 
Corporation has been formed, and matter bearing thereon, we 
submit the results of our necessarily brief and incomplete investi¬ 
gations. 

We have found the grounds to warrant the undertaking so 
general, and the beneficent results to accrue from the construction 
and operation of the Canal so far-reaching that it has been im¬ 
possible within the time at our command to more than touch upon 
a few of the most vital features of the proposition. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Loyed E. Chamberlain, 
Edward B. Mellen. 


The New York, Brockton and Boston Canal 


THE CANAL PROPOSITION. 

The New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company is a Massachusetts cor¬ 
poration incorporated for the purpose of constructing and operating a ship canal from Narragansett Bay 
or Taunton River across a portion of the State of Massachusetts to Fore River in the Town of Weymouth 
on Boston Harbor in Massachusetts Bay. The Canal to have a surface width of not less than 200 feet, 
a width at the bottom of not less than 120 feet, and a depth of not less than 25 feet at mean high tide. 

The Company under its charter has the right to a location of 700 feet in width, within which to con¬ 
struct its Canal, build docks and wharfs and other structures. It is authorized to maintain and operate 
steam and other vessels or power conveyance for transportation by water, and steam tugs or other means 
for assisting vessels in their approach to and passage through and from the Canal. 

The total length of the proposed Canal is about 31 miles, and there will be at either end well-pro¬ 
tected harbors with a depth of water in excess of that required in the Canal. 

Nature seems to have especially favored the terminals. At Fore River is one of the best harbors 
where the largest battleships and merchant vessels are today floated, and at Mount Hope Bay, Fall 
River, is a natural harbor large enough to anchor the united navies of the world at one time. 

The Company is capitalized at $15,000,000, to be divided into shares of $100 each; it may issue 
coupon or registered bonds to an amount not exceeding the authorized capital stock paid in at the time; 
all issues of stock and bonds to be subject to the approval of the Railroad Commissioners under what is 
known as the anti-stock-watering law. 

Ample provision is made in the Act of Incorporation, a copy of which accompanies this pamphlet, 
for the purchase of the Canal and all its franchise, property, rights and privileges, before or after its com¬ 
pletion, by the Commonwealth or the United States; the financial interests of the stockholders being 
properly guarded in case of such sale. In case of such sale before the completion of the Canal, one of the 
conditions of the sale must be its completion by the purchaser. 

Various companies have heretofore been incorporated to construct canals across some portion of 
Cape Cod, but this is the first legislative enactment for a canal to connect the waters of Narragansett and 
Massachusetts Bays. For more than two hundred years the desirability of some sort of a waterway 
across this Cape has been freely discussed, and numerous acts have been passed designed to accomplish 
that result. In all these projects the primary consideration has been the humane effort to obviate the 
danger to life and property incident to navigation in its treacherous waters. Because of its fogs, narrow 
channels, adverse currents, shifting sands and contrary winds, it is more dreaded by mariners than 
Hatteras or the Banks of Newfoundland. Its average annual record of the loss of thirty lives and 
property valued at $500,000, is reason sufficient for the construction of a canal if no other object was 
apparent. 

Another reason for these efforts exists in the charges which this dangerous barrier imposes on New 
England’s commerce, i.e., high rate of insurance, cost of labor, maintenance, interest on plant, equal to at 
least 40 cents on every ton passing north or south around the Cape. The transportation of 25,000,000 
to 30,000,000 tons per annum gives an idea of the tremendous loss. 

The saving in distance and thereby in time has also been taken into consideration in these efforts 
for relief. The distance from Point Judith to Boston by the usual inside route is 170 miles, while a canal 
across the Cape would receud the distance to 110 miles, and it may be observed in passing that the dis¬ 
tance by the Canal proposed by the Act incorporating this Company, reduces the distance to 75 miles. 

These are good reasons why the Federal government or the Commonwealth should be active in pro¬ 
moting the construction of a Canal, but are hardly sufficient to interest private financial interests. 

The proposition of the present Company embraces all the reasons heretofore brought forward for the 
building of a Canal across the Cape proper, and in addition thereto presents considerations that must 
commend themselves to those who are looking for investment. In other words, a business proposition is 
now advanced. 



8 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


The idea of a canal connecting the waters of Narragansett and Massachusetts Bays did not originate 
with the promoters of this Company. It was originally a government project, and a part of a com¬ 
prehensive “inside route” between Albemarle Sound and Boston Harbor. 

In 1825 President Monroe sent to Congress a special message, transmitting a report from the Secre¬ 
tary of War, with a report to him of the chief engineer, of the examination which had been made by the 
Board of Engineers for internal improvement in accordance with previous instruction. 

In this report was a consideration, among others, of a waterway “between Buzzards and Barnstable 
Bays, and the Narragansett Roads and Boston Harbor,” with explanatory observations at length on each. 
The President, in commenting on the report, said: “From the view which I have taken of these reports, 
I contemplate results of incalculable advantage to our Union, because I see in them the most satisfactory 
proof that certain impediments which had a tendency to embarrass the intercourse between some of its 
most important sections may be removed without serious difficulty, and the facilities may be afforded in 
other quarters which will have the happiest effect.” 

This particular route was advocated as a war measure. The system of defence proposed, contem¬ 
plating not only fortifications to secure the chief harbors against capture or control, but also a plan for 
inland navigation on which in time of war, reliance might be placed as a substitute for external naviga¬ 
tion. This was a good argument but not a vital or conclusive reason. 

Beginning at Boston Harbor, this inland route, out of reach of an enemy’s guns, would extend to 
Narragansett Bay, through the salt-water lagoons and shoals in the rear of Point Judith, through Long 
Island Sound to New York Harbor, through the Raritan River, the Delaware and Raritan Canal, through 
the Delaware River and the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal to the Chesapeake Bay, through this bay, 
Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River to the Dismal Swamp Canal, and thence through the Albemarle 
and Chesapeake Canal to the Albemarle Sound. 

To all the reasons above indicated, vital and essential as they are, the promoters of this enterprise 
see, as business men, a much wider field of usefulness for such a project, and with almost prophetic vision, 
see a new impetus to the industries of New England, and a mighty upbuilding of the commercial impor¬ 
tance of Boston, in which all New England will have a share. 

A very interesting study of the local situation was made in 1900 by Mr. Parker C. Chandler and is 
here reproduced in its entirety. 


Weymouth, Mass., March 17, 1900. 

Dear Sir:— 

For several years in my leisure time I have been making a study of the feasibility and desirability of 
constructing and operating a deep-water Ship Canal from Boston’s inner harbor via Weymouth Fore 
River, passing by or through the cities or towns of Quincy, Braintree, Weymouth, Randolph, Holbrook, 
Avon, Brockton, Bridgewater, Raynham, Taunton, Berkley, Dighton, Somerset, Fall River, and enter¬ 
ing Narragansett Bay from the mouth of Taunton River near Fall River. 

The results of my observation of the territory to be traversed by such a Canal, and that of experts 
whom I have consulted and who have made a scientific research into the matter, are so satisfactory that 
it seems desirable that these results should now be brought to the attention of those who would naturally 
be interested in the subject. 

The great Canal builder of the century has observed that “the ideal Canal must have land-locked 
harbors as terminals, of sufficient capacity and depth for the greatest demands of traffic in times of war 
and peace, and such a width and depth in the Canal itself as to enable it to be economically and rapidly 
operated”; and he added, “preferably a Sea-level Canal connecting two bodies of water, from both of 
which it derives its water supply.” 

The proposed Canal from Boston to Taunton meets all the requirements of M. De Lesseps’ “ ideal 
Canal.” 

The terminals are land-locked, miles from the open sea, and the United States government is now 
engaged in increasing the depth of both Fore River at Boston Harbor, and Taunton River at Narra¬ 
gansett Bay. 



Boston 

Light-ship, 

repairing. 


Turbine Steamship 
“Creole,” 

for Southern Pacific Co., 
(Morgan Line) 

6.000 tons displacement. 


U. S. Battleship 
“Vermont,” 
16,000 tons. 


Freight Steamer 
' f Satilla,” 
3,000 tons, 
for Brunswick 
Steamship Co. 


Sub-marines, 
"Octopus," 
"('ui ilefish,” 
"Tarantula,” 
“Viper.” 


Electric Boat Co., 
Builders of 
Sub-marine boats. 


U. S. Cruiser 
"Salem,” 

3,750 tons displacement. 


Freight Steamer 
‘Oemulgee,” 
3,000 tons. 


Freight Steamer 
"Ogeechee,” 
3,000 tons. 


U. S. Scout Cruiser, 
"Birmingham.” 


Freight Steamer 
“Ossabaw,” 
3,000 tons. 



Photo by Falk ,v Arakelyan, Boston. 


VIEW OF FORE RIVER SHIPBUILDING WORKS, SEPT., 1906, QUINCY, MASS. 


Passenger Stations. 



Anglim Building. 


Pierce Building. 



Photo by Falk & Arakelyan, Boston, May is, 1907, expressly for the New York, Brockton & Boston Canal and Transportation Co. 


VIEW OF BROCKTON, MASS., LOOKING EAST FROM CITY HALL 





















































































































THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


9 


A Canal can be constructed over the route described above—nineteen miles in length—as a sea- 
level Canal, at a cost so moderate as to be unimportant in view of the interests served and the earning 
capacity. 

It is not proposed in this preliminary stage of the project to treat of its commercial aspect, except 
to show briefly the need and use of this deep-draught waterway to Boston and to the cities and towns 
tributary to the seaports of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, and to urge all who have at 
heart the upbuilding of this community to consider the importance of this project to the future economic 
welfare of Boston and the coast of New England, whether it is to be treated as a private or a public 
undertaking, to the end that this final competitive outlet for this coast of New England shall be con¬ 
structed and operated in such a way and under such conditions as shall protect the vast interests in¬ 
volved. It is not urged that ultimate rights shall be granted, or privileges extended, until and unless 
the authorities of Massachusetts, within whose borders the entire Canal is located, and the Ignited States 
authorities, who in time of war must necessarily largely depend on inland navigation for purposes of 
defence, shall in collaboration have fully approved this route as the most advantageous one possible in 
the public interest in war and in peace. 



From photograph by X. L. Stebbins, Boston. 

U. S. NAVY YARD, CHARLESTOWN, (BOSTON), MASS., DEC. 11, 1906. 


IN TIME OF WAR. 

The national authorities have for years, and more actively during and since the late war with Spain, 
given much study to the permanent defence of our coast line. In time of war it may be necessary to 
close the harbors and several inlets from the sea, which intersect the lines of internal communication, 
and to protect our great naval establishments. The system of defence devised not only comprehends 
fortifications to secure the chief harbors against capture or control, but also provides for a most com¬ 
prehensive plan for inland navigation , by .canals, slack water or interior rivers and lagoons, in which in 
time of war reliance must be placed as the substitute for exterior navigation. Beginning at Boston, 
this inland route—out of reach of the enemy’s guns—is designed to reach Narragansett Bay, thence by 
a short canal through the salt-water lagoons and shoals in the rear of Point Judith and Narragansett 
Pier, thence through Long Island Sound to New York Harbor, thence by the Raritan River to New 
Brunswick, and by the Delaware and Raritan Canal to the Delaware River at Bordentown; down this 
river to Delaware City, and thence by the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal to Chesapeake Bay, down the 
Chesapeake, up Hampton Roads and the Elizabeth River; thence by the Dismal Swamp Canal to the 
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal to Albemarle Sound; thence through the swamps, land-locks, 
sounds, and lagoons of the Carolinas and Georgia to Florida; thence to the Gulf of Mexico, and thence 
through interior sounds and bays to New Orleans. 

The impediments to this extensive line of internal navigation were never many; most of them have 
already disappeared before the energy of local or State enterprise, and surveys have been made by the 
national government, and work already begun under annual appropriations to remove the remaining ones. 













Photo bv William B. Child. Newport, K. I. 

GENERAL VIEW, U. S. NAVAL TRAINING STATION, NEWPORT, R. I. 





Photo by William B. Child, Newport, R. I. 

U. S. NAVAL TRAINING STATION, ON A HOLIDAY. 

COASTERS' ISLAND, NEWPORT, R. I. 



Photo by William B. Child, Newport, R. I. 

U. S. NAVAL COLLEGE AND DRILL GROUNDS, NEWPORT, R. I. 





































Photo by William B. Child, Newport, R. I. 

UNITED STATES NAVAL TRAINING STATION, 

COASTERS’ ISLAND, NEWPORT, R. L 


Already gun-boats and modern torpedo boats can pass from Narragansett Bay to a point 100 miles south 
of Cape Hatteras without once passing outside the land-locked system described above, and by a few 
short cuts outside can continue on the same lines to the coast of Florida, 

This great traverse line of navigation along our most exposed frontier, and within the front of opera¬ 
tions, is already practically secured, with the exception of the Canal across the State of Massachusetts, 
which would long ago have been constructed by the national government except that the hitherto pro¬ 
posed Canals across Cape Cod did not meet the requirements of being inside of the front or exposed 
line of operations in the event of a foreign war. 

Any Canal through Cape Cod would have a terminus in Plymouth Bav, from which, or on the broad 
easterly end of which, or all along the Massachusetts coast from Plymouth Bay to Boston Harbor,, a 
foreign fleet of vessels could control the situation; and the same exposure to a foreign fleet exists at 
Buzzards Bay; hence a Cape Cod Canal does not complete the system of internal navigation for war pur¬ 
poses along our Atlantic coast. A Canal for this purpose must traverse the State of Massachusetts directly 
from Narragansett Bay to Boston Harbor. 

The above-described route from Boston to Taunton is an inland route, 19 miles in length, travers¬ 
ing a region with slight elevations, of entirely practical economical construction, and directly connects 
Boston Harbor with Narragansett Bay, not far from Fall River. 

This would be an absolutely inland Canal—a feature essential for war purposes, where the ability 
to transfer a blockaded fleet from Boston to New York would of itself be an incalculable advantage in 
case of war, and also a great economy, because one American fleet could be made to answer for two fleets 
by the concentration of a reserve force in Narragansett Bay, which could be used either in defence of 
New York or Boston, as the occasion demanded. 

IN TIME OF PEACE. 

Boston and the eastern portion of New England, of which she is the commercial center, are 
“hemmed in.’’ The Berkshire Hills will always remain an obstacle to commerce between us and the 
West; the Albany and Fitchburg railroads have a grade over 900 feet to climb to reach the seacoast, and 
commerce will ever seek the channels of the least resistance, so the mighty river that flow’s by Albany 
will always divert the main part of the commerce to and from the West to New’ York. To the north 
there is little commerce. To the east our ships are free to ply to Europe. To the south there is a 
barrier—the circumnavigation of Cape Cod, almost as much of an obstacle to easy commercial conditions 
as the Berkshire Hills on the west--but, unlike the barriers to the west, this southern barrier can be com¬ 
pletely annihilated and made a thing of the past by a properly located and constructed Ship Canal, and 
at a cost of only a few r millions of dollars. The modern mammoth barges which carry the products of 
the West to the sea and the raw materials of the Central and Southern States by river and the great coast 
system of inland navigation, can be brought by this Canal to Boston and the New England coast with- 













12 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


out the danger and expense of collision , wreck, delay and uncertainty which the circumnavigation of Cape 
Cod must necessarily engender; and when the modern Ship Canal to connect the Hudson River and the 
Great Lakes is completed, greater steam barges will be operated which will bring the freight of the North¬ 
ern and Western States and Canada, without “breaking bulk,” direct from the mines and fields, to be 
discharged on the wharves and into the warehouses of Boston. 

THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF CAPE COD. 

That the danger of navigating around this cape is more dreaded by mariners than Hatteras or the 
Banks of Newfoundland, on account of its fogs, narrow channels, adverse currents, shifting sands and 
contrary winds, is evidenced by the record of twenty-six years, which shows 1,233 wrecks, with an average 
annual property loss of over $500,000 and 30 lives. To the above statement of losses must be added the 
charges which the “barrier,” Cape Cod, now imposes on New England commerce, i.e., high rate of insur¬ 
ance, the cost of labor, maintenance, interest on plant, which combined charges an eminent engineer, 
who has given much study to the matter, states is equal to a charge of at least 40 cents on every ton 
passing either north or south around Cape Cod. 

Statistics show that, in spite of this Cape Cod tax of 40 cents per ton, to be added to water freights 
to Boston, to and from southern points on our coast, over 40,000 vessels and more than 35,000,000 tons 
of freight use this route annually, of which over 5,000,000 tons are in coal—which can by this Canal 
route be landed at 30 cents less per ton than at present rates, thus encouraging increased consumption 
and more favorable economic conditions throughout the manufacturing districts of New England. 

THE COMMERCIAL PROBLEM. 

It is not the purpose of this communication to dwell on the profits to be derived from constructing 
and operating the proposed Canal, but only to suggest its value to the nation in time of war, and the 
saving in freight charges which would necessarily accrue to New England, more especially Boston, and 
the many cities and towns on or near the route of the canal. Yet, from a practical point of view, it is 
desirable to state whether the volume of business coming to a Canal over this route would make it self- 
supporting. The several eminent engineers who have reported on the proposed Cape Cod Canal have 
made an exhaustive study of this matter, and they have generally estimated that at the start at least 60 
percent, of the traffic now going round the cape would use the Canal, and eventually 90 per cent, of the 
eastern coasting traffic. On the basis of 60 per cent, of the traffic on an average Canal toll of 10 cents 
a ton, the gross annual income would be $2,000,000. 

The entire tonnage of coal,5,000,000 tons a year, would make the Canal tolls from coal alone $500,000. 

The four outside lines of steamers from Boston to New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Savannah, 
and the steamers from New York to Portland and Bangor, handle over 1,500,000 tons of freight, and 
by this route would save in distance 150 miles. (See enclosed map.) 

This route saves, by measured sailing courses, 150 miles over the route around the cape, and 75 
miles via the route through the proposed Cape Cod Canal. 

The construction of this Boston, Brockton, Taunton, and Fall River Ship Canal would not only inti¬ 
mately connect these flourishing cities, and develop on this waterway extensive manufacturing plants 
and other industries, making Brockton a port of entry as near the coast line as Manchester, England, is 
by its recently constructed Ship Canal; thus giving this Canal route a large contributing manufacturing 
population which the Cape Cod route could never have, and the Sound steamers now operated from 
Fall River and Providence could load and unload their freight at Boston 300 days in the year, and the 
toll through the Canal would not exceed the expense they are now under of unloading and loading freight 
on the cars at Fall River and Providence. Moreover, day boats of the Old Colony Steamboat Company 
could be operated in summer between New York and Boston so as to breakfast in one city and dine in the 
other, and the night boats could be operated as under the present arrangements, with a little more than 
an hour’s difference in the time table. 



Commonwealth Docks. 


N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Docks. 


State House. 
Ames Building. 


Bunker Hill Charlestown 
Monument. Navy Yard. 



Photo by X. I.. Stebbins, Boston. 


VIEW OF BOSTON WATER FRONT. 


East Boston Docks. 



Photo by Falk & Arakelyan. Boston, April 


1!K)7, expressly for the New York. Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company. 


OUTER ENTRANCE TO WEYMOUTH FORE RIVER AND BROCKTON CANAL. 

This view shows the lower or outer end of the entrance to the Brockton Canal, one of the safest and most beautiful land-locked harbors in the world. The small island in 
the center foreground is known as Sheep Island. Just beyond the island is seen a lumber schooner headed out to the open sea. going through what is known as the East Gut, a 
deep channel between the end of the town of Hull and the east head of Peddock’s Island. This headland is fortified and is known as Fort Revere. Just beyond Fort Revere, and 
looking out through the East Gut, are seen the granite walls of Fort Warren. Across the channel, to the right, is seen Hotel Pemberton, located on the tip end of a point, with 
the ocean view to the east, and Hull Bay to the west. To the right of Hotel Pemberton is Hull Village, and on the second hill, the Hull Telegraph Station, the first point where 
the news of a vessel’s arrival is telegraphed to Boston. Following the shore around from the telegraph station, is the well-known summer resort. Nantasket Beach, a narrow 
strip of land separating Hull Bay from the ocean. At the extreme right of the photograph is Bumpkin Island, with the Burrage Hospital on the top of the island. 





































THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


13 


THE ROUTE OF THIS CANAL. 

A vessel would start from Boston, and, without leaving the inner harbor, proceed to Weymouth 
Fore River and up this river two miles to Braintree, where the Canal cut would commence and follow the 
valley alongside the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad to Brockton, where the Canal would 
run under the railroad and follow the low, marshy land, the source of the Taunton River, to the navi¬ 
gable river at Taunton, and by this river to Narragansett Bay near Fall River. 

The Canal cut from Weymouth Fore River to Taunton River is 102,000 feet in length, and to secure 
a Ship Canal of the same capacity as the Suez Canal, 20 feet deep at low water, 57,500,000 cubic yards of 
earth will have to be moved, and the land is so located that this can be profitably used near the Canal, 
its entire length. This would secure a cut with the approved slopes of the Suez Canal. At both ends are 
land-locked harbors now navigated by large vessels and which, when the government work now in prog¬ 
ress is completed, could receive the largest vessels in use. 

The cities at the terminals of this Canal, and the towns on its line, comprehend nearly half the popu¬ 
lation of Massachusetts. 

This statement is not intended to be comprehensive, but merely to call attention to this very 
important project. 

PARKER C. CHANDLER. 



From Stereograph. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York. 

THE KEIL CANAL, CONNECTING THE NORTH SEA AND THE BALTIC. 


Impressed with the importance of such a waterway, the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1901 (C. 
104), directed the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners to cause to be made surveys and estimates 
as to the probable cost of constructing such a Canal. With but seven months in which to make the sur¬ 
vey and estimates, with little opportunity, “through lack of means to make borings and do other work 
necessary to obtain a complete knowledge of the facts,” the Board, “owing to the short time available 
for making up the estimates,” and because of “the uncertainty as to the exact character of the material 
through which the canal is to be constructed,” was unable to present a report of any substantial value. 
This report has, by expert and competent authority, been pronounced valueless, if not misleading, and 
not reliable in any essential particular. 




























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THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


15 


An act of incorporation was asked for from the Legislature of 1905, and hearings were had, local 
conditions investigated, and a reported bill discussed at length. The proposition being a new one to 
many, the pending bill was referred for further discussion to the Legislature of 1906. In that year the 
measure was again pressed with vigor, and much additional data was presented, showing the desirability 
of affirmative legislation. The Company and the Legislative Committee had the advantage of the presence 
and advice of Prof. Lewis M. Haupt and his advocacy of the proposition was an important element in the 
final favorable action of the Legislature. 

The real significance lies in the fact that an aroused public sentiment prompted the Legislature to 
place itself on record as appreciating the vital importance of such an addition to the transportation 
facilities of New England. And that the people in the territory through which the Canal is to be built 
are alive to its meaning, is fully demonstrated by the referendum vote cast, under a provision of the Act 
of Incorporation, in the fall election of 1906, the vote being as follows: 


Votes on Question of Acceptance of An Act to Incorporate the New York, Brockton 
and Boston Canal and Transportation Company ( Chapter 532, Acts of 1906.) 


Cities and towns: 

Avon 

Berkley . 

Braintree 

Bridgewater 

Brockton 

Dighton . 

Freetown 

Holbrook 

Randolph 

Raynham 

Somerset 

Taunton . 

West Bridgewater 
Weymouth . 


Totals . . . . 

Majority for Canal 


Yes. 

No 


20 

68 

Q 

6 

706 

115 

413 

136 


249 

119 

12 

79 

13 

416 

16 

575 

50 

100 

14 

186 

13 

. 3,512 

282 

212 

16 

. 1,435 

136 

. 15,621 

1,075 

. 14,546 



The proposition presented is one of magnitude, but this is an age of great achievements. The 
laying of a cable across the Atlantic Ocean was, in its day, considered a big enterprise; so was the tunnel¬ 
ling of the Hoosac Mountains, the building of a railroad across the Rocky Mountains, the construction 
of the Suez Canal; so was the building of the Simplon Tunnel, the Manchester, Kiel and Chicago Canals. 
The Canal at Panama is a stupendous undertaking, but it will soon be a reality 

These undertakings simply represent courage, years of energy, education, and above all an apprecia¬ 
tion of great economic problems, and in each case the results justified the hope of the promoters, and 
great changes in the world’s industrial and commercial history were thereby wrought. 

New England, and particularly Massachusetts, is handicapped by its location at the extreme north¬ 
easterly section of a country rich in natural resources. The enterprise of the West and the conditions in 
the South present to our people serious problems. Well-equipped railroads with refrigerator cars permit 
each section of the country to specialize, in agriculture, fruit culture, and beef products. We must, in 
New England, be and remain a manufacturing and commercial people. It becomes to us, then, a ques¬ 
tion of food and fuel, of grain, coal, and iron. We can live only as we can maintain a lower cost of 
production than any other section of the country. This involves the assembling of raw material and 
the delivery of the finished product. 





















UNITED STATES NAVAL COALING STATION, BRADFORD, 

SEVEN MILES NORTH OF NEWPORT. 





























THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 17 

l he problem of transportation then becomes vital, the fundamental idea in transportation being 
that traffic should be conveyed from producer to consumer in the most direct way with the minimum 
of handling, due attention being paid to freight rates. Commerce seeks the line of least resistance; this 
involves the least time, the smallest expenditure of money, a consideration of distance, and the minimum 
of risk. 

New England must be brought nearer the grain, coal and iron fields. The rest of the; country which 
wants our manufactured articles must be brought nearer to us. One hundred and eighty miles nearer 
European ports than our nearest competitor, we must be able, in competition with other ports, to gather 
on equal terms products of the earth on our wharfs, else our nearness avails us little. If it is just as 
cheap to break bulk on our wharfs, why should we not secure the shipments? We must overcome the 
steep grade of the Berkshires, and the risks and dangers of Cape Cod. 

We are today dependent on the railroads. Are we wise in remaining so, or must we look to other 
methods of transportation? 

THE FORE RIVER SHIPBUILDING WORKS. 

One of the most important industrial establishments in Eastern Massachusetts today is the Fore 
River Shipbuilding Works, at Quincy, situated directly on the line of the proposed Canal via Brockton. 

From 3,000 to 4,000 skilled mechanics are steadilv employed in constructing naval and merchant 
vessels of the highest type. In one of the views of the works, shown on another page, may be seen the 
battleships New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont, all of which were constructed by the Fore River 
Shipbuilding Co. 

Admiral Francis T. Bowles, the president and general manager of the Company, is conceded to be one 
of the most able naval construction experts in the world. 

Manv submarine boats have been constructed at the works, including the noted Octopus, which has 
recentlv made so manv official record-breaking tests under the requirements of the United States Navy 
Department. 

The Company has acquired a very extensive tract of land, and so laid out the works and equipped 
its structures as to obtain one of the most efficient and economically administered shipbuilding plants in 
the world. 

There are over fifty separate structures, and the most modern machinery, electric traveling cranes, 
etc., are installed throughout. 

The Company operates its own railroad system at the works, connecting with the New Haven rail¬ 
road main line at Braintree. 

From a national as well as local standpoint, the Fore River Shipbuilding Works is one of the country’s 
most important concerns. 

PROPHECY OF COL. JOSIAH H. BENTON, JR. 

On June 12, 1900, at the first of a series of eight hearings before the Massachusetts Railroad Com¬ 
missioners which were protracted over a period of ten months, in which an attempt was made to obtain 
a reduction in the rate charged by the New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co. for hauling coal to 
Brockton, Col. Josiah H. Benton, Jr., the eminent counsel for the railroad company, in response to James 
J. Dowd, Esq., attorney for the petitioners, asserted: 

“ I say you will have tide-water to Brockton before you get through.” 

A stenographic copy of the evidence submitted at the series of hearings is on file with the Railroad 
Commissioners, as also with the Brockton Board of Trade. 

Climatic conditions, location, character of excavations, etc., are all favorable to the rapid and 
successful prosecution of the undertaking to completion in a record-breaking period of time for such an 
extensive work as the building of the proposed Canal. 

THE KEY TO THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM. 

A careful study of the map of the ‘‘Transportation Routes to and from Atlantic Seaboard,” pub¬ 
lished herewith, as also of the table of 1906 Shipments from the ports on the Great Lakes, will serve to 











FORE RIVER SHIPBUILDING WORKS, QUINCY, MASS. 












19 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 

most graphically impress one with the vital problem to be met in providing the most efficient and eco¬ 
nomical transfer of grain and flour from the Middle West, coal from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Mary¬ 
land and Ohio, iron ore from Minnesota, copper from Michigan, and grain and lumber from Canada and 
the Northwest, to the districts in the Eastern States, which are the most important industrial centers, 
and the return of the manufactured product to the central distributing points. 

The map very effectively shows the localities from which originate the immense tonnage which is 
already taxing the carrying capacity of the existing railroads beyond their ability to transport promptly, 
and is increasing annually at a pace much in excess of the added.trackage and rolling stock equipment. 

The freight congestion has already reached a crisis where it is quite generally admitted, even by the 
railroad managers, that relief must be afforded by the utilization of waterways for the transportation of 
bulky freights. 

The convenience and economy of shipments of grain and lumber from Canada and the great North¬ 
west via the Great Lakes, the enlarged Erie Canal and the Hudson River is apparent, as also the prob¬ 
ability of a tremendous increase in this direction if reciprocal trade relations are established between 
Canada and the United States. 


PROSPECTIVE BUSINESS FOR THE CANAL. 

In addition to the transportation of the greater portion of the tonnage of the district in the imme¬ 
diate vicinity of the Canal, which will undoubtedly rapidly increase to very large proportions, with con¬ 
stant growth, it is reasonablv certain that the major part of the coal tonnage and other bulky freight and 
package goods shipped from New York and southern points to Boston and points beyond, as well as 
south and west-bound cargoes from Boston and points northerly therefrom, will traverse the Canal. 

Furthermore, “there is no reason why Canals should not compete for the higher grades of freight, 
which, at prices far below' those charged bv the railroad, would bring profitable returns,” to quote from 
the report dated January 15, 1900, of the Special Committee on Canals, appointed by and reporting to 
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, then governor of the State of New' York, relative to the “policy which the 
State of New York should pursue in canal matters.” 

Between 30,000 and 40,000 vessels annually pass around dangerous Cape Cod and through the 
treacherous shoals of Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. 

As the distance from Point Judith to Boston by the proposed Canal will be but 75 miles against 
the distance of 170 miles by the inside course now- followed, it will be seen that a saving of 95 miles will 
be effected in the passage each way, which in addition to the avoidance of fogs, storms, wrecks, col¬ 
lisions, loss of life,'vessels and cargoes, is bound to cause a large proportion of the traffic to make use of 
the Canal, particularlv as there will be no possibility of the shipping being subjected to liability of being 
driven by storm upon a dangerous lee shore as would be the case in attempting to make passage by way 
of the former route proposed by way of Cape Cod Bay. 

During the year ending June 30, 1906, the New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co. hauled 
20,259,296 tons of freight an average distance of 93.22 miles, for which it received an average freight 
rate of SI.31 per ton, being at the rate of 1.407 cents per ton-mile, the average load per train-mile being 
236 tons. 

That the territory through which the proposed Canal is projected does not fail to profitably support 
the railroad monopoly now' serving it is well shown by the following abstract from the “ market letter ”of 
a prominent Boston banking house, issued January 25, 1907, referring to the New r York, New Haven 
& Hartford Railroad, to wit: 




20 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


“New Haven stock is selling at 184—the lowest price in over eight years. The depression is due 
partly to the management’s aggressive policy of expansion, partly to the hostile attitude-of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Legislature, and partly, no doubt, to the focussing of public attention almost exclusively on the 
copper stocks. Certainly it is not due to any impairment of the earning power, which is increasing at a 
pace which would have been impossible under the old management. These earnings have been as follows for 
the past five years: 



Gross. 

Net. 

Balance 
for Stock. 

1902 . . . 

. . . $43,521,087 

$12,860,273 

$4,678,855 

1903 . . . 

. . . 47,296,077 

12,906,871 

4,826,971 

1904 . . . 

. . . 48,282,909 

14,030,134 

6,094,755 

1905 . . . 

. . . 49,981,947 

15,372,376 

6,708,052 

1906 . . . 

. . . 52,984,322 

19,937,493 

10,185,377 


“It should be particularly noted that under the present management the increase in net earnings has 
more than kept up with the gross; the surplus in 1906 was equal to over 12 per cent, on the stock then out¬ 
standing as compared with a bare 8 per cent, formerly earned. This was by no means at the expense oj 
maintenance charges, which were more generous than ever. 

“In the three months from July 1 to September 30, 1906, gross earnings amounted to $14,299,620 
and surplus to $3,281,341. The latter amount is at the rate of over 14 per cent, on the $95,814,500 capital 
stock that will be outstanding in July of this year. 

“President Mellen’s policy of aggrandizement, although it involves the issue of huge amounts of new 
securities and the lowering of rates, is already fully vindicated. By this policy he has obtained for the 
New Haven an independent entrance into the coal fields, secured practically a monopoly of the street 
railways in Southwestern New England, whose competition a few years ago was a very prickly thorn in 
the side of the company, and retained his hold over the water lines. Thus he has greatly improved the 
strategical position of his company and at the same time the net earnings have been not a whit endangered 
by the large issue of securities which this policy involved. On the contrary, although the full effect of the 
earnings from the projects for which these securities were issued has not begun to be felt, the net income 
is increasing much faster than fixed charges.’’ 

Contrast the results on the New Haven system with the average rate of dividends paid by the divi¬ 
dend-paying railroads of the United States, which for the year 1905 was 5.38 per cent. It should be borne 
in mind that the New r Haven system has also to pay guaranteed dividends of from 7 to 10 per cent, for 
lease of a considerable portion of its most important subsidiary lines before paying dividends on its own 
capital stock. 

The report of the Boston Chamber of Commerce for the year ending December 31, 1906, contains the 
following information relative to the volume of business of the port of Boston in the principal domestic 
commodities for the year 1906. .. ji 


RECEIPTS OF BITUMINOUS COAL (DOMESTIC) DURING THE YEAR 1906. 

SHOWING PORT OF SHIPMENT. 


Newport 
News, Va. 

Baltimore, 

Md. 

Philadelphia, 

Penn. 

Norfolk, 

Va. 

Washington, 
D. C. 

So. Amboy, 
N. J. 

Weehawken, 
N. j. 

Guttenburg, 
N. J. 

New York, 
N. Y. 

Other Ports 

Total 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

799,844 

760,525 

589,059 

587,218 

17,204 

7,806 

2,928 

1,540 

2,800 

3,669 

2,772,593 




























THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


21 


RECEIPTS OF ANTHRACITE COAL (DOMESTIC) DURING THE YEAR 1906. 


SHOWING PORT OF SHIPMENT. 


Perth Amboy, 
N. J. 

So. Amboy, 
N. J. 

Philadelphia, 

Penn. 

Guttenburg, 
N. J. 

Hoboken, 

N. j. 

Port Johnson, 
N. J. 

Weehawken, 
N. J. 

Edgewater, 
N. J. 

New York, 
N. Y. 

Other Ports 

Total 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

Tons 

175,288 

164,598 

595,091 

148,927 

134,816 

134,462 

105,634 

100,579 

51,837 

19,442 

1,630,674 


Total receipts of Domestic Anthracite and Bituminous Coal, by Sea, during year 1906, 4,403,267 tons. 

Total receipts of Domestic Anthracite and Bituminous Coal, by Rail, during year 1906, 116,256 tons. 

Total receipts of Foreign Coal ( Bituminous only), by Sea, during year 1906, 658,072 tons. 


RECEIPTS OF LUMBER IN 1906. 


BY RAIL. 

BY SEA. 

Total by Rail 

From East. 

From South. 

Total by Sea. 

and Sea. 

Feet. 

Feet. 

Feet. 

Feet. 

Feet. 

115,740,000 

51,438,722 

113,907,352 

165,346,074 

281,086,074 


RECEIPTS OF FLOUR, GRAIN AND MALT AT BOSTON. 

BY ROUTES, DURING THE YEAR 1906. 


RAILROADS. 

Flour. 

Barrels. 

Flour. 

Sacks. 

Wheat. 

Bushels. 

Corn. 

Bushels. 

Oats. 

Bushels. 

Barley. 

Bushels. 

Malt. 

Bushels. 

Boston and Maine 
Boston and Albany 
N. Y., N. H. & H.' 
By Sea 

497,696 

294,081 

93,001 

6,515 

981,779 

339,978 

66,202 

5,149 

10,327,596 

4,654,446 

410,651 

3,382,893 

1,416,411 

53,126 

3,100,475 

918,431 

1,287,180 

465,020 

452,213 

2,550 

100 

39,477 

67,777 

1,260,825 

600 

Totals 

891,293 

1,393,108 

15,392,693 

4,852,430 

5,306,086 

919,883 

1,368,679 


RECEIPTS OF LEATHER AT BOSTON DURING 1906. 


Sides. 

Rolls. 

Bundles. 

Bales. 

Bags. 

Cars. 

Packages. 

Barrels. 

Cases. 

Weight-tons. 

9,271,232 

442,752 

570,401 

150,734 

225,358 

1,139 

625 

3,185 

50,497 

234,292 


RECEIPTS OF SKINS AND HIDES AT BOSTON DURING 1906. 


Goat Skins. 
Bales. 

Dry Hides. 
Bales. 

Green Hides. 
Bundles. 

Calf Skins. 
Bundles. 

Hides and Skins. 
Barrels and Casks. 

Pelts. 

Bundles, Casks and 
Bales. 

100,199 

33,330 

250,322 

108,448 

15,267 

104,632 
















































































































22 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


The report of the Chamber of Commerce also shows that there was a total coastwise tonnage of 
9,274,615 tons which arrived at the port of Boston in 1906. 

It not infrequently happens that by reason of strikes or other unforeseen emergencies, coal and food 
famines are periodic occurrences. By providing ample wharves, docks, trestles, elevators, warehouses, 
etc., along the line of the Canal, sufficient storage facilities would be available to enable provision being 
made to forestall such calamities and to take advantage of the most favorable times in which to trans¬ 
port commodities. 

Touching upon the matter of possible obstructions of the proposed canal by ice, it is of interest to 
note that under date of October 18, 1901, Mr. Jackson, secretary of the U. S. Embassy at Berlin, trans¬ 
mitted to the State Department copies of a pamphlet on “The Development of Traffic in the Kaiser 
William (Kiel) Canal,” in which he stated that “It has been possible to maintain the traffic without 
any interruption from ice, even throughout the severe winter of 1896 and 1897, when the sound and 
the belt were blocked by ice.” 

The Kaiser William Canal was completed in 1895, having been constructed largely for military 
and naval purposes, but has proven of great value to general mercantile traffic. The Canal is 61 miles 
long and 29i feet deep, with a width at the bottom of 72 feet and surface width of 190 feet. The cost 
was about $40,000,000. 

(P. 2191, 2146, “Great Canals of the World.”) 

With the completion of the Erie Canal improvements to admit of traffic thereon by 1,000 to 1,500- 
ton barges, the possibilities of much greater water traffic from the Great Lake ports will be of tremendous 
importance to the manufacturing districts of Massachusetts which will then be enabled to procure grain, 
lumber, coal, oil, ores, cotton, structural materials, food supplies, etc., from the producing sections, and 
to return the finished products of her factories at much lower rates than by rail. 

The average freight train-load in the United States in 1905 was 222 tons, so that it can be readily 
seen that a single barge of ordinary capacity will suffice to carry a tonnage equal to from three to five 
average freight trains. 


1906 SHIPMENTS OF THE GREAT LAKES PORTS. 


The extremely vital importance of establishing and maintaining the most efficient and economical 
means for the transportation of freight from the originating points of shipment at the ports on the Great 
Lakes can best be comprehended by an examination of the graphic map inserted in this pamphlet. 
The volume of shipments from the various ports during the year 1906 was as follows: 


CITIES. 


Ashland 

Ashtabula 

Buffalo 

Cheboygan 

Chicago 

Cleveland 

Conneaut 

Duluth 

Erie 

Escanaba 

Lorain 

Ludington 

Manistee 

Manitowoc 

Marquette 

Milwaukee 

Sandusky 

Superior ) 

W. Superior ) 

Toledo 

Two Harbors 


Corn. 

Bushels. 

Oats. 

Bushels. 

Wheat. 

Bushels. 

Flour. 

Net tons. 

I ron Ore. 

Gross tons. 

Coal (Hard). 

Gross tons. 

Coal (Soft). 

Gross tons. 

Cumber. 

Feet. 





3,238,922 






■” 



2,477,885 
412,911 







2,699,666 







50,717,000 

rO 

O 

80 

00 

rO 

6,3 1 6 , 3°7 

8,701,930 

297,687 






2,888,544 

829,348 










4,264,448 

G, 8 57,752 

224,288 

11,154,263 


461,477,000 


257,340 

668,759 





5-656,859 







697 ,370 

487,795 















115,612,000 


4,809,338 









L 355 , 39 6 




3,008,050 

3,664,468 

I,8o8,l8o 

3 i 3 ' 4 2 4 






745,084 


1,213,630 

6,744,656 

1 7 , 939 > 9 ° 2 

359,403 

5,982,804 


45,405,000 


2-3 x 4 ,247 





7,9*2,525 











Salt. 

Net Tons. 


53>8i8 


i 27,220 
244GW 
















































































THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


23 


PROPERTY VALUES TO BE CREATED BY THE CANAL. 

As the length of the proposed Canal will be 30 miles, there will be abutting frontages of 60 miles on 
the 200-feet-wide waterway, leaving a remaining width of 500 feet divided between the two sides of the 
Canal. This will aggregate 158,400,000 square feet of land area to be owned by the Canal Company, 
which will be enhanced in value by the construction of the Canal, to say nothing of the resulting benefit 
to adjacent properties. 

Assuming an annual increase in value of but one cent per foot of the land owned by the Canal Com¬ 
pany and which will offer exceptional advantages as sites for manufactories, coal and lumber yards, 
warehouses, elevators, and wholesale purposes, it would amount to $1,584,000 a year, being equiva¬ 
lent to a 5 per cent, return on $31,680,000, without reckoning any income from tolls on vessels passing 
through the Canal. 

The influence which waterways have in determining the location of manufacturing industries was 
well illustrated a few years ago, when the United Shoe Machinery Company was seeking a suitable site 
for its great plant, at which to combine all of its manufacturing operations. 

The first prerequisite demanded was that the site should have a good water frontage, so as to admit 
of receiving and distributing cargo lots. This requirement prevented further consideration of the numer¬ 
ous other advantages which Brockton could offer as a desirable city in which to conduct the very extensive 
works of the Company, which employs several thousands of the most skilful machinists and artisans. 


LETTER OF CONGRESSMAN JAMES H. DAVIDSON, OF WISCONSIN, 

Chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals, Relative to the New York, Brockton 

and Boston Canal. 

An important opinion as to the value of the proposed Canal via Brockton was expressed by Congress¬ 
man James H. Davidson, of Wisconsin, chairman of the Committee on Railways and Canals, of the House 
of Representatives, in a letter of which the following is a copy: 

March 21, 1906. 

E. B. Mellen, Esq., 

Brockton, Mass. 

My Dear Sir: I send you under separate cover some documents on Canals. I also send a copy of 
the Congressional Record which contains some remarks I made on the passage of a bill reported by this 
committee, to incorporate a company to build a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. 

As chairman of this committee and as a member of the Rivers and Harbors Committee ot the House, 
I have been giving considerable attention to the subject of waterways during the last eight years. I am 
heartily in sympathy with every movement made to improve the waterways and to encourage their use 
for the benefit of the commerce of the country. 

I have read with a great deal of pleasure and interest the articles in the papers you sent me with 
reference to the project in which you are interested. The construction of a Canal as proposed would be 
of incalculable benefit to the commerce not only of the immediate locality, but of the entire eastern section 
of our country. 

I believe it will not be many years before there will be an inside passageway from Boston to Florida, 
which will materially aid our coastwise trade by affording a safe and convenient passage and avoiding the 
dangers incident to ocean travel between the points named. 

If I can at any time render you any assistance in the project in which you are interested, do not 
hesitate to command me. 

Yours very truly, 


(Signed) J. H. DAVIDSON. 








24 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 

“IMPORTANCE OF CHEAP TRANSPORTATION.” 

“The most opulent and powerful cities which have arisen in recent times are those which have 
sprung up on the banks of great navigable rivers, or on the sea-board." 

Transportation is todav the most important question before the people of the w r orld and where 
best solved gives commercial supremacy. 

It is admitted that the cost of transportation by water is but a fraction of that by rail, it being well 
understood that “the same force that moves 1 ton on a smooth high-road will move S tons on a railway, 
or 32 tons on a canal.” 

Congressman Joseph E. Ransdell of Louisiana, member of the Congressional Committee on Rivers and 
Harbors, in an address before the Mississippi Valley Convention on April 6, 1906, stated that “On the 
Great Lakes a ton of coal is carried 1,000 miles for 35 cents and on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, under 
present unsatisfactory conditions, a ton of coal is carried 2,000 miles for $1.35. 

“Now that a magnificent waterway, 21 feet at its shallowest part, exists from Duluth and Chicago 
to Buffalo, the freight on a bushel of wheat from either of these cities to New York is 5.25 cents by lake 
and canal and 10.60 cents by rail. This is a saving to the farmer of from 25 to 35 cents per bushel on 
the rates of thirty-five years ago. In other words, where it formerly cost 29.61 cents per bushel by water 
it now costs 5.25 cents, about one-sixth as much, and where rail rates were 46.10 cents thev are now 10.60 
cents, a little less than one-fourth.” 

“There is no comparison between the cheapness of water and rail transportation. For further 
illustration, let us consider the proposed Lake Erie and Pittsburg Canal, which is to be constructed by 
a private company under authority of Congress from Lake Erie to the Ohio River at a cost of about 
$40,000,000. It will be 100 miles long and about 12 feet deep. An enormous traffic is now carried bv 
several railroads over the proposed route of this canal, between Ashtabula and other points on Lake 
Erie and the Pittsburg district—probably 50,000,000 tons a year—and the charge is 6 to 7 mills per 
ton per mile. The water rate from Duluth to Ashtabula is 3-10 of 1 mill per ton per mile on coal, and 
8-10 of 1 mill on iron ore, so that while it costs SO cents for every ton of ore conveyed bv water from 
Duluth to Ashtabula, a distance of 1,000 miles, it costs to carrv that same ton of ore bv rail from Ashta¬ 
bula to Pittsburg—135 miles—about 90 cents per ton. In other words, it costs 10 cents per ton more to 
go 135 miles by rail than 1,000 miles by water. These are actual figures and show that it costs fullv 
seven times as much to move iron ore by rail as by water in that locality. On coal the disproportion is 
much greater, for the water rate is only 35 cents per ton to Duluth, or less bv 55 cents per ton to go 
1,000 miles on the water than 135 miles by rail. On this commodity—coal—the rail rate per mile is 
just twenty times as high as the water rate. Hence it would appear that if the Canal is constructed 
there would be such a great reduction in freight rates on both coal and iron, these two items of such 
tremendous importance to every citizen of this Union, that the benefit resulting from this Canal would 
be incalculable.” 

We quote also from a recent article by Hon. John A. Fox, of Arkansas: 

“In the United States, 147 out of 162 cities, with a population of 25,000 and over in 1900. were 
located on navigable streams. 

“As manufacturing industries have been responsible for the growth of these cities, the manufac¬ 
turer, guided' by a desire to seek cheap, easy transportation, has been largelv responsible for their 
location. The raw materials for manufacture must be assembled at a verv low cost of transportation: 
motive power must be supplied as cheap as possible; labor must be plentiful, and facilities for removing 
the finished product must be adequate. 

“Had the contemplated Canals and connecting waterways been completed as planned in the earlv 
decades of the last century, 150 rivers connecting the Great Lakes, Atlantic Ocean and Gulf would 
have been permanently improved, and would today be carrying our stagnant freight at a saving of five- 
sixths of what it now costs to ship by rail. Of the many waterway projects begun at that earlv date, all 
have been allowed to go into disuse or have been acquired by the competing railroads, so that onlv the 
historic Erie Canal, to which the city of New York owes its greatness, still remains as a monument to the 
wisdom and foresight of our country’s founders.” 





1 










ENTRANCE, OR MOUTH, OF QUINCY RIVER. 


The brick building- with the tall smoke stacks is the power plant of the Old Colony Street Ry. Co. The Boat Building Plant, known as the Baker Yacht Basin, is next 
beyond, to the right. On this side of the Fore River Bridge, which has a draw 100 feet wide, are the large coal pockets of J. F. Shephard & Sons. Above the bridge is seen the 
gigantic plant of the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., with its shiphouse and large crane on the left; and to the left is a portion of the town of No. Weymouth. 



Photo by Falk & Arakelyan. Boston, April 1907 , expressly for the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company. 


VIEW FROM GRAPE ISLAND, NEAR ENTRANCE OF QUINCY BAY. 

First point to the left to be noted is the mouth of Weymouth Back River, which ]runs in a southeasterly direction, leaving the Bradley Fertilizer Works to the right hand, 
and going into the interior as far as East Weymouth, passing through the towns of North Weymouth and Hingham. This is the river that will be used by the U. S. government 
as a water-way to its magazine which will be located at West Hingham, the U. S. having taken land on both sides, and virtually controlling the upper or inland end for over a 
mile. This location was found to be the best on the coast, from Maine to Florida, for such a purpose. The Bradley Fertilizer Works, at the entrance, is a large and well-known 
industry, shipping its product to all parts of the world, and at present freighting to Boston by way of lighter and tug boat. 

The second point to be noted in this view is the Weymouth Fore River, which runs in a southerly and westerly direction, to Weymouth Landing, and is really the mouth of 
the proposed canal. In the center of this view will be noted a staff, and in almost a direct line from this staff, turning to the right, is the mouth of Quincy River, which is used 
as a water-way for the City of Quincy. The entire right bank of this water-way, as shown in the photograph, is a portion of the City of Quincy. The hill is known as Mears’ 
Great Hill, and the settlement at the base as Hough’s Neck, the house of the Quincy Yacht Club and the pier of the Hough’s Neck Steamship Co. being located at this point. 
The large building and wharf at the right of this view is the Pumping Station of the Massachusetts High Level Sewer. Note .—From Mears’ Great Hill and this wharf there is 
a 30-foot channel at low water , totally unobstructed and clear to Boston Light; and this channel, coming into a land-locked harbor, will be one of the entering water-ways to the 
Brockton Canal. 


























THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


25 


The fundamental importance to all communities of ample transportation facilities, sufficient to 
foster the development of industry, which has caused President Roosevelt and Congress to insist that 
proper national supervision and control should be exercised over interstate traffic, was recognized long 
since by Col. Josiah H. Benton, Jr., the present corporation counsel of the New York, New Haven & 
Hartford R.R. Co., when, on November 25, 1893, in an address to the Beacon Societv of Boston, on the 
topic of “The United States Railroads,’’ he made the following remarks: 

“The railroads of the United States are so intimately connected, and public accommodation demands 
that they be operated with such connections as to make them practically one svstem, that the regulation 
of one necessarily affects, to a greater or less degree, all the others. The railroads of one portion of the 
country are benefited or injured as the railroads of other portions of the countrv are benefited or injured. 
Whether it will be eventually possible to operate all the railroads of the United States under uniform 
regulations it is impossible to say, but the tendency is and should be to uniformity so far as it is practic¬ 
able under the differences of local conditions. When State supervision and regulation of State com¬ 
merce conflict with national supervision and regulation of interstate commerce, it is ineffectual, for 
obvious legal and practical reasons, and the time is probably not far distant when it will be a serious ques¬ 
tion , whether the supervision and regulation of railroad transportation, to be practical and efficient, must 
not be exercised wholly by the national government." 

Should the national government see fit to acquire the Brockton Canal property and franchise, 
under the rights reserved to it by the charter granted by the Massachusetts Legislature, it could, of 
course, determine to abolish all tolls and charges, as was done in 1881 when the United States acquired 
control of the “Soo” Canal from the State of Michigan, and as the State of New York has done, to its 
great advantage, on the Erie Canal. 

DEVELOPMENT OF WATERWAYS. 

“In France and Germany for many years there has been a very great development of waterways. 
All their rivers have been deepened and improved and connecting canals have been constructed in manv 
places. It is said that freight can be conveyed by water from practically every part of France and Ger¬ 
many to every other part. Let me quote from a recent work on Modern Germany, published in 1905 
by O. Eltzbacher. On page 231, etc., he says: 

‘Recognizing the importance of cheap transport and of an alternative transport system, which 
would bring with it wholesome competition, Germany has steadily extended and enlarged and improved 
her natural and artificial waterways, and keeps on extending and improving them year by year; and if 
a man would devote some years solely to the study of the German waterways and make the necessary 
but very extensive and exceedingly laborious calculations, he would probably be able to prove that 
Germany’s industrial success is due chiefly to cheap transport, and especially to the wise development of 
her waterways.’ 

‘ Evervwhere in Germany water transport is being developed with the utmost vigor and energy. On 
all the rivers and all the canals commercial and industrial activity is marvelously developing, and the 
development of water transport is becoming almost a sport, if not a passion, with the German business 
community.’ 

‘ If it were not for the existence of the German waterways the German industries would certainlv 
not be in the flourishing condition in which they are now. When ice closes the German rivers and 
canals, the export and import trades are at once very seriously affected, and if the German waterways 
should be blocked for a whole year, the whole of Germany would probably be ruined, for Germany cannot 
live without her waterways. Certain valuable products and by-products of the German mines and iron 
works, and the more bulkv product of the chemical industries of Germany can, according to many, only 
be sold in Germanv and abroad, owing to the cheapness of transport by water, and in many cases the 
profit is cut so fine that an increase of the freight charges by about one-fiftieth of a penny 
per ton per mile would inevitably kill important industries which, it seems, are at present killing the 
industries of countries competing with Germany. Thus Germany’s industrial success is no doubt due 
to a very large extent to the immense assistance which she receives from her waterways. 




ORE DOCKS, ASHTABULA, OHIO. ORE DOCKS, LORAIN, OHIO. 





















THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


27 

‘ In my opinion, we could well emulate the French and Germans in this wise policy, and I sincerely 
hope we will do so. To my mind there is no more defensible and reasonable object for national legisla¬ 
tion than improving navigation, thereby cheapening freight and benefiting every producer and consumer 
in the land, for transportation charges add nothing to the value of any commodity, but are a tax alike 
upon the producer and consumer.’” 

On April 3, 1900, Hr. James Richard Carter, president of the Boston Merchants Association, in 
advocating the lease of the Boston and Albany Railroad to the New York Central & Hudson River R.R. 
Co. well stated that “ New England’s life is its manufactures and to distribute them throughout the land, 
in competition with the rapidly increasing manufactures of other sections of the country, we must have 
at the lowest possible cost the best freight facilities possible.” 

At this same hearing the late Edward Atkinson, the noted economist, called attention to the matter 
of Boston Harbor facilities which it is of interest to observe at this time. He said: “I don’t believe 
there is any too much room in all the harbors of this Eastern coast to do the work that is coming upon us 
in the next fifty years. I believe that the next great development here will be the restoration of the old 
Boston Harbor. If you will give regard to the map of the harbor of Boston and notice that the channel 
of the Neponset River goes straighter to the sea than the channel of Charles River, that there is nothing 
to prevent vessels coming clear up to Quincy Point and all along there except the bar at the mouth of the 
Neponset River, way out, that that can be easily dredged and there are probably no rocks, and that the 
ultimate commerce of Boston will require the development of Dorchester and Quincy Bay, there you 
would have a very large land-locked basin, protected by the islands, not subject to the dangers of the 
northeast winds. The superiority of that point over East Boston is that East Boston wharves, etc., 
that are proposed to be filled, are exposed directly to the northeast winds. Now, there is a greater 
potential to make the Boston Harbor the best harbor on this whole coast by working out Dorchester 
and Quincy Bay, and I hope you will all consider that when the State loan for developing East Boston 
comes before you. You will have also observed that Dorchester and Quincy Bay is at the terminus 
or near the terminus of all the great Western and Northwestern lines, that is, the Fitchburg, by way of 
Clinton and Fitchburg, the Boston & Albany, the Woonsocket division, the Boston & Providence, all 
come in to what one of my friends wittily called the interminable station, and just outside of that is this 
magnificent opportunitv for a larger harbor, a safer harbor and a better harbor than the present 
harbor of the Charles River, and that will be required. I think that this consolidation runs right in that 
way, because it is well known that these great railroad men have been buying large areas of land on Dor¬ 
chester and Quincy Bay—that is, it is as well known as anything that they have not disclosed themselves; 
but if you go to the title you will find that railway interests control many hundred acres on Dorchester 
and Quincy Bay with a view to the future potential of Boston Harbor.” 

The Boston Journal, under date of April 0, 1907, contained the following editorial: 

“ The railroad, not the dray, the stage coach, the sailboat or the steamer, is the institution called to 
the Yankee mind by the word ‘transportation.’ Yet steamers not only carry avast quantity of freight 
from American producers to their consuming countrymen, but do so at materially lower rates. 

‘‘An interesting article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press burns in this comparison. The freight cost of 
the cargoes which passed through the Sault Ste. Marie Canal alone in 1905, says that journal, was 
$31,420,584. The total is impressive for the volume of freight. At the lowest rail rate this same 
quantity of merchandise would have cost $187,000,000. 

“Ore is carried from Duluth to Ashtabula or Conneaut—about 1000 miles—at a charge of about 80 
cents a ton. Thence by rail to Pittsburg—125 miles—the freight cost is 90 cents a ton. The water rate 
is, therefore, only about one-seventh of the rail rate. On coal the lake tariff is 35 cents a ton from those 
Erie ports to Duluth; but for the short distance between Pittsburg and those ports the shipper must pay 
the railroads 90 cents a ton. 

“These figures are the explanation of the unceasing, uninterrupted procession of great freighters 
passing through the ‘Soo.’ No Easterner who has ever watched the flow through that vital artery 
could fail to be impressed. Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, and now 
Duluth, all owe their trade success to the development of water traffic. The Mississippi and the Ohio, 




2S 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


long half used, are coming into their own again by virtue of a boat rate of only .67 of one mill a ton-mile 
from Louisville to New Orleans, in comparison with a rail rate of 7.6 cents a ton-mile. Nearer at hand, 
Baltimore and Norfolk, Savannah and Philadelphia, are finding the roundabout coast a more profitable 
shipping course than the straightaway railroad. 

“The rail lines do not feel the development of water lines; they cannot ship the freight waiting on 
their platforms. But the country is coming to feelit, and is being immensely benefited by it.’’ 

Under date of May 27, 1907, the Worcester Telegram contained the following interesting editorial: 

“The spending of $10,000,000 for Canals to spread out the possibilities of ships of the Great Lakes 
looks like a comparatively small project to capitalists of the Middle West. Surveys have been com¬ 
pleted from Michigan City to Hammond, Ind., and the engineers are busy now to make the route about 
50 miles. It runs into Indiana for 8 miles from the shore of Lake Michigan, and makes a loop of 26 miles, 
to float the lake ships for the accommodation of the United States steel city of Gary, besides East Chicago, 
Indiana Harbor and Hammond, and finally to Lake Calumet on the southern boundary of Chicago. 
It is for the furthering of interests of the steel and iron industries which center in that section after getting 
away from the Great Lakes. The Canal is to have a main channel 250 feet wide and lateral channels 
200 feet wide, with uniform depth of 24 feet, and places at intervals for the big freight vessels to turn in, 
these basins to be about 800 feet wide. New York, Pittsburg, Indianapolis and Chicago capitalists are 
to furnish the funds for this enterprise. Steel magnates are the leaders, and other kinds of manufac¬ 
turing are to be brought into greater prominence by means of these waterways, some of which are com¬ 
paratively small rivers now. It is claimed that this move means that Chicago will become one of the 
biggest cities of the world, in manufacturing as well as in population, and that it will in the course of 
years be the best equipped for general shipments by water of any city at considerable distance inland. 
This expenditure of so many millions for the making of waterways in the suburbs of one great city is also 
considered only the beginning of the most complete Canal system of the world for the United States, to 
connect the Middle West with the Atlantic Ocean by the westward route through Massachusetts and by 
the southward route through many States by way of the Mississippi River. The iron ore, from which so 
much of the wealth of this country is made, centers more at Chicago than at any other one center of com¬ 
merce. It is first loaded upon boats at the mines about Lake Superior and such of it as must go long 
distances after it has been made into iron and steel can be shipped more cheaply by water than by rail 
if the waterways are provided. New England is to use a great deal of this iron and steel in the future , and 
much of it can be sent to Europe through Massachusetts to better advantage than any other way. provided the 
facilities are provided. The Great Lakes extend this way. Much of the interests of the steel men who 
have millions involved in the industry extend this way.’’ 

HOW TO STIMULATE MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRIES 

A series of articles appeared in the Boston papers in the spring of 1906 on the general topic of “ How 
to have a Bigger and Busier Boston.’’ 

The consensus of opinion agreed that improved and cheaper transportation, not controlled by inter¬ 
ests outside of the State, was the main essential. Several of the contributors dwelt upon the desira¬ 
bility of the State acquiring control of a through railroad across the State. A moment’s reflection will 
convince any one familiar with the relative cost of moving freight by rail and by water that it will be of 
vastly more importance to citizens of this Commonwealth for the proposed Canal to be constructed 
between Boston and Fall River via Brockton to enable through traffic being conducted by barge to and 
from the Great Lakes via the enlarged Erie Canal without breaking cargo at New York or Buffalo. 

With the completion of the proposed Pittsburg and Lake Erie Canal there would then be the 
opportunity to land coal, coke, ores, metals, grains, flour, meats, salt, lumber, stone, brick, etc., very 
cheaply at points all along the line of the Canal and at Boston and vicinity, and also to ship the finished 
product to interior points or abroad. 

In the past, Massachusetts has had extensive foundry and shipbuilding establishments, which, if 
given the attainable facilities, should again assume important places among the leading industries of the 
State. 




Photo by Falk \ Arakelyan, Boston, May 18 , 1907 , expressly for the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Co. 

VIEW OF BROCKTON, MASS., LOOKING SOUTH FROM ANGLIM BUILDING. 


First Congregational 

Bixby and Home Bank Building. Church. 


Passenger Stations. 


Anglim Building. 



Photo by Falk & Arakelyan. Boston. May 18 . HOT, expressly for the New York. Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Co. 


VIEW OF BROCKTON, MASS., LOOP 'JG NORTH FROM CITY HALL. 


























THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


29 


James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad, and other transportation officials, admit 
that it is today physically impossible to procure ears, rails, etc., and construct railroads fast enough to 
handle the constantly increasing demands for transportation of the leading products of the country, as 
President Hill manifested by sending the following telegram to the president of the National Rivers and 
Harbors Congress, held at Washington, D.C., December 6 and 7, 1906, to wit: “ I deeply regret that I am 
unable to attend Rivers and Harbors Congress. In view of inability of railroads to move heavier classes of 
tonnage in entire country, there has been no subject before Congress in twenty years which interests so 
many people and will prove so great a benefit to the basin of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers as a 
15-foot channel or canal from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico.” 

That President Hill correctly indicated the incapacity of the railroads to properly move freights 
throughout the country has been grievously apparent for many months. Delays in the receipt of fuel, 
food, merchandise and building materials have caused great hardships and financial loss to shippers and 
consignees in every section. 

The recent situation at Springfield, Mass, was described by W. G. Wheat, vice-president of the 
Springfield Board of Trade and manager of the largest department store of that city. 

In an interview, published in the Boston Sunday Post, December 23, 1906, he is quoted as follows: 

“ In the West Springfield Yards it is estimated on the best authority that there are now 8,000 freight 
cars awaiting transportation. At least two-thirds of these are loaded with all kinds of merchandise and 
the road (Boston & Albany) seems to be utterly unable to relieve the congestion. 

‘‘This freight held up here represents thousands and thousands of dollars worth of business going 
both East and West.” 

In the same article H. H. Bowman, president of the Springfield Board of Trade and of the Spring- 
field National Bank, is quoted as saying: 

‘‘The New York Central Road seems to be using the Boston & Albany branch as a kind of side issue 
and letting the road get along in any old way, without paying the slightest regard to the wishes of its 
patrons.” 

If the citizens of Massachusetts are content to allow its industries to remain longer handicapped 
when the opportunity is presented to throw T off their shackles, they will have themselves only to blame. 

Along both sides of nearly the entire length of the proposed Canal will be afforded splendid oppor¬ 
tunities for the construction of wharves, piers, docks, elevators and manufacturing establishments. 
The area bordering the Canal is to be controlled by the Canal Company, from whom it will be possible 
to lease or purchase locations at reasonably low prices. 

It is stated that the land alone on which to build an elevator at Buffalo would cost $750,000. It is 
reasonable to suppose that the enhancement in value of the surplus land to be acquired by the Canal 
Company, in the taking of a strip 700 feet wide for its location, as authorized in its charter, at but a 
moderate annual advance, would in a large degree contribute towards defraying interest on bonds, and 
operating expenses. 

What may be expected from the management of Massachusetts railroads controlled by New York 
railroad interests is best illustrated by the remarks of Vice-President Edgar Van Etten of the New York 
Central & Hudson River Railroad, the present lessees of the Boston and Albany Railroad, in an in¬ 
terview published in the Boston Globe, March 8, 1906. He is reported as saying: ‘‘I do not see how any 
one can expect the New York Central Railroad, which has termini in both New York and Boston, to go 
out of its way to ‘boom’ either of these cities. 

‘‘It is quite natural, of course, for the Boston & Maine to do everything in its power to 
induce shippers to route their export business this way, for the Boston & Maine has a special interest in 
Boston. 

“ The New York Central simply gives to the shipper the choice of two routes and he can please him¬ 
self as to which he selects. It is the only proper thing for us to do. 

‘‘As far as Boston’s export trade is concerned, it wouldn’t help the city very much anyway if this 
class of business should increase tenfold next year. No matter how great the volume of exports that 
passes through the city, it would have no material effect in building up Boston. It is the development of 
the local business and the stimulation of manufactures that will do^that. 





30 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


“The direction and volume of export traffic must always be controlled by special conditions and by 
natural laws. In the case of grain, for instance, as the producing area extends farther and farther west 
toward the Pacific, what is more natural but that wheat and corn for the foreign markets should more 
and more find their way to the gulf ports, which are nearer to the western farms than the Atlantic ports? 

“Boston has largely been built up by its railroads, anyway, and I think that is pretty good proof 
that the railroads should be allowed to continue making their own rates and not be brought under govern¬ 
ment control in that respect. 

“What would happen to Boston if the rate-making power should be taken out of the hands of the 
railroads and rates placed on a mileage basis? Why, half the manufactories in New England would 
have to be closed. 

“As to whether or not Boston can be made a larger manufacturing center than it is at present, l believe 
New England as a whole cannot expect to grow very much more as a manufacturing section. 

“As everybody is aware, the West, which was formerly one of New England’s best customers for 
boots and shoes and other manufactured goods, is now making those things for itself, and the domestic 
market of the New England factories is growing more and more restricted. 

“Of course, New England will always retain its reputation for high-class manufactured goods, but 
even in that respect it is beginning to meet with severe competition. The cotton mills in the South 
are today manufacturing mainly the coarser kinds of goods, but the time is coming when they will make 
the finer grades, too. 

“You ask me whether I consider the business men of Boston as progressive and up to date as those 
of other cities in the matter of building up their city. 

“Well, that is a rather delicate subject for me to enter upon. Certainly I have no wish whatever to 
criticise the business men of Boston, but it does seem to me they are a little bit slow to support Boston 
enterprises and not as much inclined to hustle as they might be.” 

Lease of Fitchburg Railroad to Boston & Maine Railroad. 

Bearing upon the present attitude of the New York Central management, it is well to consider the 
claims advanced by Lucius Tuttle, president of the Boston & Maine Railroad, before the Massachu¬ 
setts Legislative Committee in 1900, at which time the New York Central officials were also successfully 
seeking for the right to acquire a ninety-nine-year lease of the Boston & Albany Railroad by assuming to 
guarantee 8 per cent, dividends on its capital stock. Mr. Tuttle stated: “ As between the New York Cen¬ 
tral and the Boston & Maine Railroad, this is nothing but a clean and straightforward business propo¬ 
sition, and it neither introduces, involves nor contemplates any change of ownership, control or man¬ 
agement of the road of either party. 

“I have said that the Boston & Maine system covers the territory east and north of Boston. I 
now want to tell you what I mean by the New York Central system and its territorv. It is probable 
that most people who read or speak the words ‘ New York Central’ have in mind a road from New York 
City to Buffalo; that they do not understand that the New York Central today controls nearly all of 
the railroad mileage in the northern part of the State of New York; that it owns the Lake Shore and 
Michigan Southern with its branches and allied lines in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, together with the 
Michigan Central, covering a large portion of the State of Michigan; that it practically controls the so- 
called Big Four Road, reaching into Indianapolis, Cincinnati, St. Louis and the Southwest; and perhaps 
not through ownership but by sentiment, the Chicago and Northwestern; and that it has exceptional 
opportunities for getting a fair share of the interchange business of the great transcontinental lines that 
span and intersect those prosperous States that lie west of the Mississippi. So when I speak of the New 
York Central Road, I mean not simply a road from New York to Buffalo, but a system of roads reaching 
its tentacles into that part of this great country where the largest quantities of its raw products are 
produced, and where its manufactured goods are also very widely distributed—the great Mississippi 
Valley. The New York Central is in position to gather in and carry over its rails a large part of that 
great domestic and export and import commerce which is bound to be an important factor in 
this country’s future business life. The traffic of that great territory, which has been called 





THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


31 


the granary of the United States—the Mississippi Valley—is brought by the New York Central and its 
allied lines eastward toward New England as far as the Hudson, but there its own line toward Boston 
and New England ceases and turns southward to New York Citv. It wants, however, to do business 
everywhere and it allies itself for this purpose with the railways leading to Boston because much of its 
traffic seeks its outlet thereat.” 

Mr. Tuttle said further: ‘‘It is not Boston against New York alone, but Boston against every 
other place where the rails of a great trunk line reach a feasible harbor on the Atlantic seaboard; and to 
show you something of the development of the foreign commerce of this country, and the new lines that 
have been opened for it, I will read some of these figures concerning the export of cereals—wheat, corn, 
and oats—-in the years 1890, 1893 and 1899. In 1890 Boston exported 5,614,000 bushels; in 1893, 
9,443,000; and in 1899, 35,130,000. From 1890 to 1899 New York’s had grown from 47,000,000 to 
90,000,000; Baltimore’s from 24,000,000 to 61,000,000; Philadelphia’s from 17.000,000 to 41,000,000; 
Newport News' from 1,600,000 to 22,000,000; Norfolk’s from 38,000 bushels to 5,978,000; and Galves¬ 
ton’s from 36,000 bushels to 22,821,000 bushels. In other words, from all these places—Boston, New 
York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newport News, Norfolk and Galveston—the export trade of this country 
in wheat, corn and oats alone increased from 96,500,000 bushels to 280,291,000 bushels, in ten years. 

‘‘When you take such facts into account, do you suppose that a place with terminal facilities like 
Boston's will not secure enough of the increase to fully employ all of the trunk lines leading to it, provided it 
offers those facilities to the great continuous rail lines that reach the source of supply—the Mississippi Valley." 

In contrast with the foregoing remarks note the following article which appeared in the Boston 
Advertiser March 23, 1907: 

President Tuttle of the Boston & Maine Railroad denied yesterday in vigorous language that Boston 
is losing her export trade, declaring that rather than the railroads be blamed if there is any real disap¬ 
pointment in the growth of Boston as a port, they should be praised, as they alone have been active 
in the port’s development, whereas, on the other hand, the merchants have done little else than moan 
over their own shortcomings. President Tuttle added: 

“ In the first place, it cannot be expected that Boston can ever hope to compete successfully with 
New York for the greater portion of the export trade leaving this section of the Atlantic seaboard. 
Nature has endowed New York with many natural advantages; New York is the eastern terminus of 
many of the great trunk lines which bring to it a vast tonnage destined for foreign lands from the West 
and South, and the facilities offered by the metropolis in the matter of terminals and storage facilities 
combine to attract, and naturally so, the great bulk of this business to that port. 

‘‘The people of Boston can thank the railroads alone for the development which has already taken 
place in the matter of our export trade.” 

In response to a query, Mr. Tuttle replied: ‘‘I think 1 have made it clear in the course 
of my remarks, that everything that can be done in the way of producing additional and better and easier 
transportation facilities to Boston, as a deep water export point, will increase its commercial prosperity, 
whether it is by putting the Boston & Albany with the New York Central, or by putting the Fitchburg 
with the Boston & Maine, or in any other way. If we can provide better and easier and more workable 
transportation facilities to the city of Boston from the points at which the great export traffic of the country 
originates, we shall have more ships at Boston to carry it. When we get more ships for outward traffic we 
shall get better facilities for bringing imports into Boston, and then Boston will become an import as 
well as export center. The grain that is put into steamers at Boston does not, of itself, produce very 
much direct revenue for Boston except in the wages of the men who load it, the revenue of the railroads 
that bring it, and the revenue of the steamers that take it to Europe; but if we get more steamers coming 
here for grain they will bring in miscellaneous cargoes, and Boston will again become what it was in the 
past, a great distributing center to which European imports will be sent. That is one of the things we 
need today, and need very much. Until within a few years the importers of Boston went to New York 
for everything that they received from Europe. Today they find more ships coming here and are able 
to import direct, and that is an advantage. Establish a market, start importing houses, and Boston 




32 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


will become a distributing center for the interior sections of the country; people will come here to buy; 
warehouses will be erected, and increased employment will be provided for its citizens.” • 

To the question: “Is it not a fact that if this canal, for which the Legislature of New York has appro¬ 
priated $60,000,000, is completed, the New York Central will need eastern ports for its traffic!’’ Mr. Tuttle 
replied: “It needs them today, and it will need them more then." 

Mr. William H. Lincoln, at the time president of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, in favoring the 
lease of the Boston & Albany Railroad to the New York Central & Hudson River R.R. Co. on March 19, 
1900, wrote to the Legislative Committee in part as follows: “It is idle and foolish to say that the 
New York Central desires to obtain this control in order to check the flow of the great products of the 
country and to divert business from Boston,when we know very well it is in their power to accomplish this 
at any moment, and without the outlay of a dollar or the incurring of any responsibility. Our entire 
commerce with Europe is at the mercy of this same corporation, and we could not help ourselves.”* 

After all these predictions it is not very pleasing to note that the exports from the port of Boston 
have very materially fallen off since the above leases were effected, in 1900, as shown by the following 
comparative tables: 


EXPORTS OF WHEAT, CORN AND OATS. 

From Boston. From New York. 


YEAR. 

BUSHELS. 

BUSHELS. 

1890 

5,614,000 

47,000,000 

1893 

9,443,000 

56,047,000 

1899 

35,130,000 

90,000,000 

1900 

30,337,000 

75,086,000 

1901 

35,108,000 

62,995,000 

1902 

16,620,000 

34,132,000 

1903 

13,988,000 

40,060,000 

1904 

7,537,000 

13,645,000 

1905 

16,449,000 

40,841,000 

1906 

16,991,014 

46,140,284 

1907 

18,402,182 

50,427,289 


The 1906 Annual Report of the Boston Chamber of Commerce contains the following significant 
paragraph: 

‘‘While it is in a way satisfactory to be able to record an improvement in the volume of Boston’s 
foreign commerce; in view of the unexampled prosperity of the whole country and of the phenomenal 
gain made by some of our rival ports, the percentage of gain of less than 5 per cent., the smallest made 
by any of the Atlantic and Gulf ports, is almost humiliating.’’ 

It is understood that many prominent Boston citizens feel far differentlv todav about the advisa¬ 
bility of having sanctioned the railroad leases. It certainly seems that something is needed to stimulate 
the export commerce of Boston, to say the least. 

Samuel Hoar, Esquire, a Director of the Boston & Albany R.R. Co., in his argument before the 
Legislative Committee, urging authority to lease said railroad to the New York Central & Hudson River 
R.R. Co., said: ‘‘The whole trend of the export business is toward lower rates. If the much-vaunted 
canal through New York should ever be built and the New York Central should still continue in com¬ 
petition with it for export business to the continent and England through New York, it could still con¬ 
tinue in the traffic at Boston because the difference in the cost of handling in the port of New York is 
so much greater than in Boston that the difference in distance and the higher grades would be more than 


*It is noteworthy that Mr. Lincoln has observed the danger of complete monopoly, as at a meeting of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Real Estate Exchange on June 6, 1907, at which the commercial interests of Boston was the subject of dis¬ 
cussion, he asserted that, in the event of a merger of the Boston & Maine and New York, New Haven & Hartford 
Railroads, the commercial interests of Boston would be imperilled in the case of any future friction. 




“New Line,” 

Slade’s Ferry Bridge. New York Boats. 


“Fall River Line,” 
New York Boats. 


American Print Works. 



VIEW OF WATER FRONT OF FALL RIVER, TAKEN FROM BORDEN FLATS LIGHT HOUSE, MOUNT HOPE BAY, APRIL 25, 1907. 



Photo by Falk & Arakelyan, Boston, April 2 . 5 , 1907 , expressly for the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Co. 


VIEW FROM SLADE’S FERRY BRIDGE, FALL RIVER, LOOKING NORTH 



























































THE NEW YORK. BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


33 


compensated for by the lower charges in Boston. The lighterage in New York of the Central’s traffic 
is done by its own organization, and whether there is a profit or a loss in that operation I do not know, 
yet to the extent that they enlarge their business, to the same extent they must enlarge their lighterage 
facilities in New York.” 

A possible solution of the problem is splendidly summarized in the following paragraph of a news¬ 
paper article by George Alfred Townsend, the renowned correspondent, which appeared in the Boston 
Sunday Globe , November 25, 1906. He wrote: 

“The surest way to modify railroad and stock-jobbing rapacity is to extend canals, to restore Long 
Island Sound, to canal into the coal regions from the Lakes, to connect Pittsburg with the Mississippi and 
Lake Erie, and to turn both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans into canals. We already have 217,000 miles 
of railroads, and they are all jealous of one small canal.” 

There certainly appears no good reason why, if facilities are provided to furnish fuel, ores and raw 
materials at low cost in Massachusetts, many industries which formerly were very prosperous in the 
State will not again assume large proportions. 

For a period of over a hundred years Massachusetts was the chief seat of iron manufacture on this 
continent. From Massachusetts the industry moved west and south, and centered for many years about 
Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valiev, but Pittsburg is now so emphatically the heart of the steel industry 
that few people there know of the existence of any rolling mills east of Philadelphia. 

In 17S4 there were 76 iron works in Massachusetts. In 1798 the two counties of Plymouth and 
Bristol had in operation 14 glass furnaces, 6 air furnaces, 20 forges, 7 rolling and slitting mills, not to 
mention a number of trip hammers, and a great number of nail and smith shops. 

In an address to the delegates at the great National Rivers and Harbors Convention at Washington, 
D. C., December 6, 1906, Hon. Geo. W. Guthrie, Mayor of Pittsburg, Pa., stated that Pittsburg's grcrwth 
and prosperity had been due to the fact that the ore from Michigan is transported to the steel mills by water. 

With the deepening of the Erie Canal to a depth of 12 feet the same class of vessels which now carry 
the ore from Duluth to Pittsburg can, by way of the proposed New York, Brockton and Boston Canal, 
bring coal, ores, grain, etc., to Eastern Massachusetts. 

Enormous profits are now being made by the Steel Trust, and heavy contribution thereto is exacted 
from the people of Massachusetts and other New England States for structural iron, etc. A large saving 
would result to this section and a splendid opportunity for investment be afforded in the establishment 
of furnaces and foundries in this district under the conditions set forth. 

The demand for rails, structural and shipbuilding castings, as well as for machinery, locomotives, 
castings, etc., for domestic and export use is almost unlimited. 


GOVERNOR CURTIS GUILD, JR., ON THE TRANSPORTATION, COMMERCIAL AND 

INDUSTRIAL SITUATION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

Since the foregoing article, entitled ‘‘How to Stimulate Massachusetts Industries,” was written 
Governor Guild has sent a special message to the Legislature recommending the establishment of an 
unpaid commission on commerce and industries to consider the finances, manufactures, transportation 
facilities and general business conditions of the Commonwealth. This commission, the governor believes, 
should not be restricted in its scope, but should be authorized to extend its study to any line of investi¬ 
gation bearing upon the future industries of the State. The governor takes occasion to point out that 
nothing is expended by the Commonwealth for the direct promotion of commerce and transportation, 
and asks the question whether the time has not now arrived when the State should investigate means of 
helping itself. 

The message was read in the Lower Branch and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, 

Following is the text of the message: 




'i 



BRIDGE AT WEIR VILLAGE, TAUNTON, MASS. TAUNTON RIVER, SOUTH OF BRIDGE AT WEIR VILLAGE. 

Tide makes up to this point. Depth of river, 8 V 2 ft. TAUNTON, MASS. 



SOUTH OF BRIDGE, AT WEIR VILLAGE, TAUNTON, MASS. 



BERKLEY BRIDGE, BETWEEN BERKLEY AND DIGHTON. 
3% miles south of bridge at Weir Village, Taunton. 



Photographs by Choicener, Taunton. 






















THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


35 


Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

Executive Department, 
Boston, April 10, 1907. 

7 o the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives: 

Massachusetts has fortunately ever been devoted to the ideals of humanity, charity and justice 
Her expenditures show how very small a part mere materialism plavs in her legislation. 

The Commonwealth spends nearly $3,000,000 a year in public charities—a million in reformatory 
and correctional institutions, a million in various forms of State relief to veterans—almost entirely to 
veterans of the Civil War—nearly a million on education, half a million on the judiciary, and consider¬ 
ably less than half a million on the maintenance of law and order through the militia. The various boards 
and commissions, established chieflv for the regulation of corporate activity and the correction of abuses, 
cost altogether, roughly, another million. These are the principal items of annual expenditure. 

With the exception of the comparatively modest appropriations for State highways and for expen¬ 
ditures under the Commission of Harbors and Public Lands, little or nothing is spent by the Common¬ 
wealth for the direct promotion of commerce and transportation as distinguished from their regulation. 

I desire, therefore, frankly to call your attention to the material development of the Commonwealth. 
We know, of course, of various - forms of action that could be taken by the national government that 
would benefit Massachusetts. Liberal appropriations have already been given for the deepening and 
development of Boston Harbor. 

Has not the time come now, however, when Massachusetts should investigate means of helping her¬ 
self? Is it not common sense to prevent depression before it does appear? I do not believe that in order 
to secure progressive legislation it is necessary to drive investors away from Massachusetts by mis¬ 
representation of our actual business conditions. 

The Commonwealth is prosperous. The value of the agricultural products of the Commonwealth 
in 1895 w r as $53,000,000. In 1905, the last census year, it was $64,000,000, a gain of 21.03 per cent. 
Though small in area, Massachusetts is, measured by value of produce, the first agricultural State in 
New England. 

The value of our manufactures increased in the same ten years from $734,652,132 in 1895, to 
$1,124,092,051 in 1905, again of 53.01 per cent. In the leading industries, percentages of gain are 


shown as follows in 1905, as compared with 1895: 

Boots and shoes.42.20 

Carpetings.46.63 

Cotton goods.42.46 

Leather.30.07 

Machinery and metal goods.44.47 

Paper.55.98 

Woolen goods.68.83 

Worsted goods.147.78 

The actual gains and losses in value of product between 1895 and 1905, as compared with the pre¬ 
ceding decade, are as follows: 

1885-1895. 1895-1905. 

Boots and shoes. $7,405,548 $51,544,547 

Carpetings. 910,774 3,472,679 

Cotton goods. 32,190,463 39,749,425 

Leather. *145,634 7,725,207 

Machinery and metals. 12,092,772 32,814,673 

Paper .'. 6,731,398 15,650,403 

Woolen goods. *2,377,315 20,216,133 

Worsted goods. 9,777,848 30,997,948 


*Loss. 

















3o 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


It cannot, therefore, in honesty be denied that manufacturing in Massachusetts is not only prosperous, 
but infinitely more prosperous than in the immediate past. 

It is the public testimony of one of our largest shoe manufacturers that only the high rents in Boston, 
in themselves a sign of prosperity, prevent the establishment of more shoe factories even in the crowded 
limits of our capital city. 

Savings bank deposits in Massachusetts increased in ten years from $439,289,861 to $662,808,312, 
a gain of 50.89 per cent. The average deposit in savings banks per capita for each person of the popu¬ 
lation was, in 1885, $141.64; in 1895, $175.69; in 1905, $220.67. According to the latest figures, Massa¬ 
chusetts, except New York, that Mecca of multi-millionaires, is per capita the richest State in the Union. 

Immigrants at least appreciate, if all citizens do not, that Massachusetts is a field for enterprise. 
The half million added to our population between 1895 and 1905, in spite of the fact that Massachusetts 
is, with one exception, the most densely populated State in the Union, is a larger gain in actual numbers 
than that shown by any other State, excepting only those huge tracts embraced in the boundaries of New 
York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Texas. 

Commerce in long hauls, as well as by local transportation of freight and passengers, has increased 
so fast that the subways and their terminals in Boston, as well as the great railroad stations built so short 
a time ago and with an eye to future development, are already utterly inadequate for the swift increase 
of traffic. The Railroad Commission has repeatedly pointed out this fact, and has suggested other needed 
improvements, some of which have been adopted. 

It is true, however, that the export trade of Boston is not developing as fast as it should. It is 
true, also, that the great delay in the transportation of freight is a serious drawback to an even swifter 
development of commerce and manufactures. 

Again, although our manufactures are rapidly increasing, it is true that some Massachusetts capital 
that normally should go to increasing plants for cotton and carpet manufactures in Massachusetts has 
gone not only to the construction of such plants in the South, but even to other New England States. 

Remedies for these weak points in the line of general advance deserve immediate attention. 

The future of Massachusetts in the export trade is in the export of manufactured goods. Yearly, 
manufactures form a larger and larger proportion of our total exports. 

In 1900, the year of the last national census, of total United States exports valued at $1,394,483,082, 
but $484,846,235 represented manufactures. In 1906, out of total exports of $1,743,864,500, the sum of 
$686,023,169 represented manufactures. 

Massachusetts manufactures the very kind of goods that are wanted abroad. Cannot we ourselves 
at least do something to get the products of our workshops more cheaply from the shop to sea water? 
Can we not make sure that the port of shipment is a Massachusetts port? 

If, however, we are to export manufactures by Boston ships we must attract these ships by the 
guarantee of bulk freight for ballast. We need something more than better treatment on freight differ¬ 
entials to secure through shipments of grain and other bulk freight. We need something more, too 
than better tariff conditions. It is idle to seek for more shipments of goods over trunk tracks incapable 
of promptly forwarding and handling even the freight now offered today for shipment. 

The crying evil in Massachusetts is lack of sufficient trackage on trunk lines to handle through freights 
and to provide for even more shipments. The failure to build such tracks, the lack of interest of investors 
in providing the means for such facilities, is a basic fact in the present unsatisfactory condition of trans¬ 
portation in Massachusetts. 

It may not be generally known to the people of the Commonwealth that in the last ten years, between 
1896 and 1906, an addition of only 10 miles of a third-track character, of only 17 miles of a fourth- 
track character, have been added to the steam trackage of Massachusetts. Only 217 miles even of sidings 
of different kinds have been added in ten years. Although the lines are notoriously overwhelmed with 
traffic in a period of enormous increase of production, the railroads have as yet failed to furnish the trunk 
lines of track needed to keep pace with this production and Massachusetts capital has failed to rise to 
what on the surface would seem to be a natural and profitable investment in providing them. An investi¬ 
gation should at once be made as to the means of securing more new through steam tracks across the 
Commonwealth and not for the benefit of one city alone but of every Massachusetts city and town. 




Photo by Falk & Arakelyan, Boston, May 2(>. expressly for the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Co. 

VIEW OF TOWS OF LOADED AND EMPTY COAL BARGES PASSING, FROM WEST CHOP LIGHT STATION, VINEYARD HAVEN, MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MASS. 


In the above manner, millions of tons of coal, plaster, etc., are annually transported around Cape Cod, to and from points all along the Atlantic Coast. More than 75 tugs 
and 300 barges, the latter of a capacity varying from 800 to 3,500 tons, are regularly engaged in this traffic, in addition to hundreds of schooners of all sizes. The principal 
companies operating tugs and barges are the Reading Co., Staples Coal Co., Lehigh Valley R. R., Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R„ Central R. R. of New Jersey, Ontario 
& Western R. R.. Red Star Line of Baltimore, Baltimore & Boston Barge Co., Consolidated Coal Co„ Susquehanna Coal Co., Commercial Tow Boat Co., Atlantic Transportation 
Co., and Standard Oil Co., in addition to which there are quite a number of independent tow boats operating on the route. The tows are usually of three barges, with tota 
freight of from 4,000 to 6,000 tons, the barges being connected with ten-inch hawsers. 




Photo by William B. Child. Newport. R. I 


UNITED STATES TORPEDO STATION, GOAT ISLAND, NEWPORT, R. I 






































i 





37 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 

The brilliant prosperity of cotton mills on tide water suggests another field for investigation, in the 
possibility of developing tide-water lands for manufacturing purposes. We are spending money freelv 
and wisely in the metropolitan district in developing certain river fronts as parks. Why not spend a 
little in developing river banks and waste land on tide water for manufacturing purposes? May we not 
create opportunities for mills built near water, that fuel and material may be hoisted direct from the coal 
barge and the steamer, or at least from the lighter into the mill? The saving thus effected in transporta¬ 
tion would mean the difference between loss and high profit. 

The encouragement by development of water powers or otherwise of the smaller industries, the 
development of the small shop, requiring but a modest investment, but high industrial skill, is also 
worthy of examination. 

In legislation affecting finance, manufactures and transportation, Massachusetts has ever been 
careful, and should continue to be so, of the interests of the investor, of the traveling public and of labor. 
I do not believe that the proper safeguarding of those interests is inconsistent with an expert study of 
existing conditions of transportation and industry in Massachusetts with the avowed object of securing 
a larger investment of capital in Massachusetts and of removing such obstacles as can safely be removed 
from the path of an even more rapid industrial development. Nothing can help us more than a candid, 
dispassionate investigation and declaration of facts in regard to the present condition and future possi¬ 
bilities of investment here at home. 

Let us have Massachusetts capital for Massachusetts. Let us see, moreover, if there are not means 
by which there may be an immigration rather than an emigration of capital that shall co-operate with the 
existing immigration of labor for the further extension of the industrial leadership of this Commonwealth. 

I recommend the authorization of an unpaid commission on commerce and industry, representing 
law T , transportation, manufactures, capital and labor. This commission should be composed of disin¬ 
terested citizens of recognized ability. It should not be restricted in scope, but should be authorized 
to extend its study to any line of investigation bearing upon the future industries of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts. After careful study of what opportunities exist now, to-day, for the exploitation and 
development of our industries, of what needs to be done, whether by legislation, by executive action or 
by other means, their report should be the plain, simple truth, told without fear or favor. 

(Signed) CURTIS GUILD, Jr. 

That the importance of the recommendations of Governor Guild is fully recognized by the community 
is well expressed in the comment of the Boston Herald , April 14, 1907, which was as follows: 

“ Governor Guild’s memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature, favoring action to secure a larger 
industrial and commercial growth for the State, elicits many a hearty amen. His reference to the limited 
endeavor of the railroads to promote business growth likewise sets people thinking. 

“ The policy of the legislative body of the State, generally approved by the executive, has for quite 
a number of years permitted, if it has not fostered, the formation and upbuilding of monopolies. In 
the far-away past, Massachusetts sank millions of dollars in tunneling the mountain in the western part 
of the State in order to secure to the port of Boston and the Commonwealth an independent trunk line 
to the West. 

“ It later chartered another railroad between the Hoosac Tunnel line and the Boston & Albany, which 
contained within itself the nucleus for a third competitive trunk line Southwest and perhaps West. But 
the original purpose was never achieved. 

“ The State sold out its mountain tunnel interest and permitted the Central Massachusetts mileage 
to fall into the hands of the Boston & Lowell, and the latter and the Fitchburg Railroad to be merged 
into the Boston & Maine, which last-named property is manifestly falling under, if it has not already 
done so, foreign influence which is more interested in another State and port than Massachusetts and 
Boston. 

“ Great monopolies are in control of the steam railroad mileage of the State and are fast drawing 
within their grasp the trolley lines. Monopoly is the enemy of competition, and it is competition which 
supplies territory with new transportation and banking facilities. 





38 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


“ Massachusetts has had enough of material wealth, enough of brains to have made more of the 
State and the principal seaport of the State than it has ever done, but it has spent most of its money 
elsewhere and thrown away somewhat of its opportunities. And what it has done with transportation 
facilities it is fast doing with banking facilities. 

“ The concentration of banking capital in a few financial institutions, to the sacrifice of commercial 
banks, is more promotive of monopolies than of commercial and industrial expansion. Monopoly is 
contracting, competition expanding. 

“ If Massachusetts is at last awake to the mistaken trend of the past twenty or thirty years and 
ready to alter its course, it is probably not too late to achieve much in a business way.” 

COST OF TRANSPORTATION PER TON-MILE. 

RAILROADS. 

United States, Average, 1905 . 

In Massachusetts, “ 1906 . 

“ New York, “ 1905 . 

“ Pennsylvania, “ 1906 . 

“ Ohio, “ 1905 . 

Illinois, “ 1905 . 

Illinois Central R.R. 1906 . 

Pennsylvania R.R. 1906 . 

New York Central & Hudson River R.R., 1905 . 

Boston & Albany R.R., 1906 . 

(Leased November 15, 1899, to N. Y. C. & H. R. R.R. Co.) 


Boston & Maine R.R., 1906 1.160 

Fitchburg R.R., 1900 800 

(Leased July 1, 1900, to Boston & Maine R.R. Co.) 

New England R.R., 1898 . 1.100 

(Leased May 10, 1898 to N. Y., N. H. & H. R.R. Co.) 

Old Colony R.R. Co., 1893 . 2.687 

(Leased March 1, 1893, to N. Y., N. H. & H. R.R. Co.) 

New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R., 1906 . 1.407 

WATERWAYS. 

Great Lakes. .085 

Erie Canal (present 7-foot draught). .190 

Enlarged Erie Canal, (12-foot draught, estimated). .052 

Ohio River. .032 

Mississippi River. .010 


The rate given for the Old Colony Railroad is the last published, prior to its lease to the New York, 
New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co., which system, as we have seen, has a monopoly of the freight 
transportation business of Southeastern Massachusetts, and particularly the section between Boston, 
Brockton and Fall River. Brockton being twenty miles distant from Boston, it will be noted that the 
schedule rate per 100 pounds for the haul is equivalent to a per ton rate for haul of a 2,000-pound ton 
one mile. The manner in which the New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co. has exercised its power 
is illustrated by the following schedules of tariff rates per 100 pounds for the haul between Boston and 
Brockton: 


CENTS 

.766 
1.230 
.721 
.632 
.500 
.691 
.556 
.588 
.613 
.900 



















THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


39 


CLASSIFICATION. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 

Rate, per 100 lbs., prior to July 1, 1903 .11 .09 .OS .06 .06 .04 

Rate, per 100 lbs., since July 1, 1903 .13 .11 .10 .07 .06 .05 

Not content, however, with the very material advance thus indicated, the railroad company with¬ 
drew the special rate of seven cents per 100 pounds which had for years been accorded Brockton shoe 
manufacturers for transporting shoes and materials used in this most important local industry, and 
advanced the rate thereon to nine cents per 100 pounds. 

Furthermore, on May 1, 1903, the railroad company advanced the rate for hauling coal from Provi¬ 
dence, New Bedford and Fall River to Brockton 10 cents per ton. The average haul from these cities 
is but thirty-three miles. Prior to 1898 the charge had been 81.00 per ton. After protracted hearings 
before the Massachusetts Railroad Commission, following a refusal by the railroad company to the Brock¬ 
ton Board of Trade to grant a reduction to 50 cents per ton, a compromise rate of 75 cents per ton had been 
obtained, and continued in effect until May 1, 1903, when the rate was advanced to 85 cents, as above 
stated. 

By the operation of the proposed Canal this charge, together with the extra expenses for re-handling 
cargo, would be reduced to the toll charge to the respective points along the line of the Canal. 

The tariff rate of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad for hauling coal from New York 
City to Sing Sing, a distance of thirty-one miles, is 50 cents. 

The Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners, in their report for the year ending June 30, 1893, stated 
that: “It is highly unsatisfactory to find that the average freight rate in Massachusetts so much exceeds 
that of almost every section of the entire country,” and that “ Such a condition of things is certainly not 
to be accepted and acquiesced in as permanent and inevitable.” 

“We cannot expect to hold, much less to swell the volume of trade and industry in this State, with 
a tariff per mile for moving the commodities of commerce and the materials and products of manufacture 
which is substantially in excess of that in other States. 

“The imperative and far-reaching demand in this State, as regards railroad transportation, is for 
better and cheaper facilities for carriage of merchandise. The next and most needed step for the improve¬ 
ment of our railroad system lies in the direction of a lower average freight rate.” 

It will be observed from the rates above quoted that the conditions deplored by the Railroad Com¬ 
missioners still exist in Massachusetts. 

MASSACHUSETTS’ HANDICAP. 

As the State of Massachusetts is dependent for all the coal, coke, ores and metals and the major part 
of its meats and grains upon the West, it is truly surprising that in spite of the excessively disproportionate 
high cost of transportation which it is apparent the manufacturers have to pay to obtain fuel and raw 
materials, as well as to re-ship the manufactured product, the State has not suffered a decline in volume 
of manufactures, in the production of which its citizens are almost wholly dependent for a livelihood. 

HOW CANAL WOULD HELP RAILROADS. 

The history of transportation the world over has established one fixed and fundamental law, viz.: 
that rail and water transportation, side by side, work no injury to the interest of each, but on the contrary, 
the greater the facilities for water transportation, in proportion are the railroads the greatest beneficiaries 
from the existence of this ideal and economic condition. All improvements in facilities for water trans¬ 
portation have resulted in the diversification and distribution of industry and added to the volume of 
business done. 

Thev are not, and should not be, hostile rivals to supplant or drive each other out of business. They 
are rather to supplement each other, having distinct spheres of usefulness in the movement of commerce, 
and each helpful and beneficial to the other, working within their proper sphere. Said a well-known 








THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


41 


president of one of the Western roads in a recent hearing: “In a general way my idea has been, and is, 
that the construction of the Canal (Isthmus) would be beneficial to the Mississippi Valley, as well as to 
the Pacific coast. I incline to think cheaper transportation for heavy freights between the Mississippi 
\ alley and the coast would so increase general business that the railroads would get back, out of high- 
class freight and passengers, more than they would lose by the loss of low-class traffic where time is not 
important.” 

It needs but a glance at the map to show that most of the great cities of the United States are located 
on waterways. The prosperous cities and towns on the Great Lakes from Duluth to Buffalo and along 
the Erie Canal grew up through the existence of these waterways, and all owe their success to the devel¬ 
opment of water traffic, competing with and fixing rates of land transportation. Paralleling these 
waterways are some of the best paying railroads in the country. The Shore Line, along Long Island 
Sound does not suffer by its proximity to that waterway. Flourishing cities and towns are found feeding 
and being fed by railways and waterways. The southern ports are growing because of the Panama 
Canal, and railroads are extending their lines south to participate in the increasing and anticipated 
traffic. New Orleans is pressing to the fore with rapid strides. 

In these competing sections some of the traffic is diverted to the water that would otherwise move 
on the land, but the increased traffic on the water builds up new industries along the route, new com¬ 
munities spring into existence, old ones take on new life. The tributary country is developed and new 
points for distribution are created, and the railroads reap the harvest, and shipper and consumer share 
in reduced rates. The railroads do not feel the development of water lines to their injury, for they can¬ 
not ship the freight waiting on their platforms. But the country feels it and is immensely benefited by it. 

These general principles are as applicable to New England as elsewhere, and the proposed Canal 
would not only prove of incalculable advantage to the industrial growth of this section of the country, 
but ensure to the financial prosperity of the railroads here operating. 

The River Elbe, in Bohemia, was improved, and as a natural result of the deepening of its channels 
the river traffic increased five-fold, but the traffic on the competing railways, in the same period, increased 
still more, so that the dividends on the main line from Teplitz to Aussig rose to 16 per cent per annum. 

Germanv completed the canalization of the River Main from Mayenee to Frankfort in 1SS6. 

There was an independent railway on each bank of the Main from Frankfort to Mayenee, which 
opposed the project of deepening the river. Did they suffer a serious falling off in their traffic? On 
the contrary, their business increased 36 percent, in 1887, and 58 percent, in 1888, and they joined with 
the river interests in requesting a further deepening of the waterway. 

Consul-General Mason reported under date of December 10, 1897: 

‘‘That the river traffic, which amounted to only 150,000 tons annually before the improvements 
were made, increased to 1,693,112 tons in 1896, while the traffic by rail, which amounted to 930,000 tons 
in 1886, increased to 1,639,229 tons in 1896, being nearly double what it was ten years before when the 
railway had a practical monopoly of the freight business of Frankfort. 

“ Germany has over 9,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers, and there are nearly 18,000 miles of 
State-owned railways in Prussia alone. That in 1897 to 189S the income from State-owned railways 
was $264,000,000, considerablv more than half the entire income of the Prussian government, and after 
deducting expenses of operation, repairs, construction, equipment, interest on bonds, etc., leaves a net 
revenue of $52,122,000 to be turned into the treasury of the State. 

“ That a portion of this surplus should be devoted each year to extending the canal and navigable 
river system, is in furtherance of a policy the wisdom of which time and experience has confirmed.” 

To quote further from Consul-General Mason: 

“ German statesmanship was among the first to foresee that the time would come when railways, 
having reached their maximum extension and efficiency, there would remain a vast surplus of coarse 
raw materials—coal, ore, timber, stone, and crude materials—which could be economically carried long 
distances onlv by water transportation, and that in a fully developed national system the proper role 
of railroads would be to carry passengers and the higher class of merchandise manufactured from the 
raw staples which the waterways had brought to their doors.” 





42 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


In France it has become a settled national policy that interior communities, to thrive and prosper 
and to become contributing factors to the growth of national wealth and prosperity, must have both 
railroads and canals, and from the fact that both avenues of transportation are largely fostered and 
owned by the State, would such a national policy prevail if waterways were hostile to the interests of 
the railway? 

Mr. S. A. Thompson, writing in the Engineering Magazine of July, 1902, says: 

“ The legislators of France have shown their faith by their work, for in that land, which is smaller 
than our State of Texas, there has been spent since 1814, out of the National Treasury, more than 
$750,000,000 on waterways and harbors, more than $700,000,000 on railways, and more than $650,000,000 
on wagon roads, and the people of France are quite as well informed as to the value of waterways as are 
their legislators, for when a vote was taken some years ago to learn the popular feeling as to a proposed 
canal from Paris to Rouen, at an estimated cost of $40,000,000, out of 345,000 votes cast, only 13 were 
in the negative.” 

Mr. Thompson further says: ‘‘One-sided views are always wrong views, and the railway managers 
who look only at the tariff which would be taken from their lines by a waterway, and not at all at the 
traffic which would be brought to them by the waterways, are as wrong and short-sighted as the mobs that 
destroyed the power looms or harvesting machinery, with the idea that fewer men would be employed.” 

The chain of prosperous towns and cities on the Great Lakes from Buffalo to Duluth, and along the 
Erie Canal from Buffalo to New York, has grown up through the existence of their waterway systems. 

ESTIMATED COST OF THE CANAL. 

The Massachusetts Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners in its report to the Legislature, 
submitted May 1, 1902, estimated the total cost of the Canal at $57,618,358, but added the following 
significant paragraph: 

“ Owing to the short time which was available for making up the estimates, and to the uncertainty 
as to the exact character of the material through which the canal is to be constructed, it has been im¬ 
possible to make the estimates with the exactness which would have been done if time and mean§ had 
allowed; and for this reason it has been deemed best to add 15 per cent, to the figures, to cover possible 
contingencies and unknown quantities, as well as the usual expenses attending any such undertaking.” 

Its estimates were based upon the construction of fourteen locks, and a summit level between 
Brockton and Randolph, 16,000 feet long, at an elevation of 130 feet above sea level. 

The estimate also included fifteen highway and five railroad draw-bridges with clear width of 100 
feet for the passage of vessels. 

It is very probable that a much lesser number of locks and some variation in the precise route of the 
Canal, will materially alter the cost of construction and subsequent maintenance and traffic operation. 


ABSTRACT FROM SPEECH OF HONORABLE J. HAMPTON MOORE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 30, 1908. 

“Obviously the 30,000,000 people directly and indirectly interested in the business of the Atlantic 
coastwise States should have some definite information as to the cost of the proposed inland waterway 
and some reasonable prospect of having this waterway opened up for commercial, industrial, and agri¬ 
cultural purposes. So far as information upon this subject could be obtained, I am convinced that it 
would require no more money to build a 16-foot Barge Canal, with greater depths at certain points from 
Boston to Beaufort, than the single State of New York has already appropriated for its improved Erie 
Canal System. In answer to an inquiry for an estimate, based upon such data as he already had at 
hand, the then Chief of Engineers, United States Army, whose retirement upon age has removed from 
the Government service one of its most faithful officials, sent the following letter: 



THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


43 


The Government’s Incomplete Data—Valuable Information Already at Hand, but Not 

Sufficient for the Purpose. 


Hon. J. Hampton Moore, 

United States House of Representatives. 


War Department, 

Office of the Chief of Engineers, 

Washington, February 24, 1908. 


Sir: 1. In reply to your letter of the 5th instant, concerning estimates for an inland waterway 
from Boston to Beaufort, I have to state that there is considerable information at hand concerning all 
sections of the route with the exception of the Delaware and Raritan Canal link and the region bordering 
upon the open stretch between Narragansett Bav and the eastern entrance to Long Island Sound. 


2. For the section between Boston and Fall River reliance is placed upon the estimate of the 
Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners of Massachusetts, published in its report of Mav 1, 1902, 
amounting to $57,018,358 for a Canal 25 feet deep and 130 feet wide at the bottom. The preparation 
of an estimate for a Canal 35 feet deep will probably require a series of borings. 


3. The routes across Cape Cod have been extensively investigated and the conclusion reached 
that the line by way of Barnstable and Buzzards bays is superior to all others. The estimated cost of 
a Canal along that route 23 feet deep and 198 feet wide at the bottom is approximated $10,000,000. 


4. No reconnaissance appears to have been made for an inland waterwav to avoid the stretch 
of open sea of about 40 miles between the entrance to Narragansett Bay and the eastern entrance 
to Long Island Sound. (See page 49) 




10. On account of the length of time required to furnish even an approximate estimate of cost of 
the entire waterway with any of the uniform depths specified in your letter, no attempt is made at this 
time to do so. 

The nearest approach that can be attempted without considerable labor is as follows: 


Estimated cost of 25-foot depth from Boston to north end of Staten Island (in open 

ocean from Narragansett Bay to Long Island Sound). $57,618,358.00 

Cost of 25-foot navigation from north end of Staten Island to Philadelphia (involving 
deepening of Arthur Kill, Raritan River, Delaware River, and the construction of a 
Canal from Raritan River to the Delaware). Indefinite 

Cost of 27-foot depth from Philadelphia to Norfolk. 7,605,471.39 

Plus value of works and franchise of Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, given in 

Senate Document No. 215, Fifty-ninth Congress, second session, as. 2,514,289.70 

Cost of 16-foot depth from Norfolk to Beaufort Inlet. 10,023,000.00 


Total. $77,761,119.09 

Plus a large and indefinite amount for Delaware and Raritan section. 


Very respectfully, 

A. MACKENZIE, 

Brigadier-General, Chief of Engineers, United States Army. 































WRECKS AROUND CAPE COD SHOWN BY DOTS. 

(Located upon above map.) 

Major J. A. Willard, of the U. S. Engineer’s office at Newport, has prepared a map of the coast, from Fisher’s Island, Conn., to Cape Cod. which shows 
the approximate location of 1076 marine disasters within that territory. 60 of which occurred prior to 1880, and the balance between 1880 and 1903. 

There are four distinct groups of wrecks on the map. the principal one being off Cape Cod. Five hundred and forty wrecks, or more than half those 
recorded occurred off the northern, eastern and southern shores of that peninsula. The other groups are off Block Island, Point Judith and Watch Hill. 
These four groups comprise all but about 60 wrecks, which are scattered along the shores of Nantucket. Martha’s Vineyard and Buzzards Bay. A footnote 
states that many more disasters have occurred at Vineyard Haven than those indicated, and that 34 vessels were said to have been driven ashore or otherwise 
damaged in the November storm of 1898, but no record of these wrecks is at present available.-Die Boston Globe, Feb. 27, 1905. 







































THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


45 


VALUE OF THE CANAL TO THE STATE AND NATION. 

In addition to the great stimulus to manufacturing which would doubtless result from the construc¬ 
tion of the Canal, the great increase in taxable property resulting therefrom would yield a large income 
to the State, or in other words, contribute towards reducing the ayerage levy for State tax, and thus 
benefit every tax payer within the Commonwealth. 

From a national standpoint it is probable that such a waterway, by reason of its sort cut between 
Long Island Sound and Massachusetts Bay, would enable an adequate defence of Boston, New York, 
Long Island Sound and Atlantic Coast points being made against a hostile fleet, with a much smaller 
number of war vessels than would otherwise be required. 

The extensive works of the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., at one end of the Canal, affording 
opportunity for repairs and construction work and outlet therefrom in ease of a blockade, and the 
government works, coaling station, etc., at Narragansett Bay, the new naval magazine at Weymouth 
and Hingham, and the Navy Yards at Charlestown and Portsmouth, are vital considerations. 

[ADDENDUM. OCTOBER 31 , 1908 .] 

Boston Journal, October 31, 1908. 

"Massachusetts Bay is just emerging from the grasp of a terrific storm, ivh ich for twenty-four 
hours raked the coast, drove all vessels to cover, and did untold damage along the ivater front for 
many miles. A gale of 75 miles an hour accompanied by torrents of pelting rain was prevalent for 
hours, and even with the coming of sundown yesterday had only partially abated. 

“Cape Cod, as usual, got the brunt of the storm, and for more than twenty-four hours not a 
vessel of any kind has rounded the Cape. Hidden away in the lee of the Cape, just off the Handkerchief 
Shoals light, are several ships still waiting for calmer seas that they may continue their journeys in 
safety. 

“The Yale, one of the two flyers of the Metropolitan line, which left New York for Boston Thurs¬ 
day evening, and was due in Boston yesterday morning, is anchored off Bass river, and will probably not 
leave there until some time this morning, docking at noon or later. She teas the only vessel that even 
tried to round the tip of the Cape, but she was obliged to but back, for the seas were too much for her.” 

WHY THE OLD CAPE COD CANAL HAS NEVER BEEN BUILT. 

In a communication to the Boston Journal under date of December 18, 1906, Clifford Berkeley, a 
civil engineer of Boston, wrote in part as follows: 

“The Cape Cod Canal from Sandwich to Buzzards Bay is a rosy picture, but it has some very decided 
drawbacks. The distance is short, the digging is easy, the tidal current can be gotten round, but there 
is one wellnigli insurmountable drawback, viz.: the lack of protection on the Massachusetts Bay end and the 
shifting character of the sands on the Cape Cod shore. 

“The writer of this article was on the engineering corps which surveyed for the Canal under the 
Lockwood management in 1884. We found that the mouth of that Canal in the Massachusetts Bay end 
shifted after every gale; that it was almost impossible to get the dredges into the Canal and they have never 
been taken out. It was found that it would be necessary to build a breakwater of great extent 
and tremendous strength off the mouth of the Canal, and the building of this breakwater was to be 
thrust upon the United States Government. 

“ Undoubtedly the breakwater could be built, but at tremendous expense; and what would it provide? 
An inadequate shelter on a lee shore, with a gap not over a quarter of a mile wide for sailing vessels to 
enter. At night, in a fog, in a snowstorm or gale of wind, no shipmaster would take his chances in the 
bight of Massachusetts Bay on a lee shore, with the absolute necessity of running through a gap a quarter 
of a mile wide or striking the breakwater. I have conversed with scores of shipmasters relative to this 
matter, and they have all told me that in heavy weather they wotdd rather take their chances around Cape 
Cod, with plenty of water to the eastward, than run the risk of getting behind that breakwater. 




THE NEW YORK. BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


46 


“Again, a breakwater affords very little shelter if it is blowing a gale of wind, for while the sea may 
not come through, the wind has a heavy rake on the vessels’ rigging and spars, and the holding ground 
off Cape Cod is notoriously poor. Anchors will drag, and if a large number of vessels were moored inside 
the breakwater there would be collisions and a general mix-up." 

The charter now held by the Boston. Cape Cod and New York Canal Co. was granted in 1899, and 
there have been yearly announcements that the enterprise had been all financed and work was to be 
started each succeeding season. It has been apparent, however, that competent contractors who have 
examined the site realize that there are not suitable foundations for the necessary masonry works. Mr. 
Henry M. Whitney, in an address before the Merchants’ Club of Boston, October 16, 1900, as reported 
in the Boston Herald, stated that “ fifteen years ago he had been much alive to the importance of the 
Cape Cod Canal. 

“At that time able engineers reported that the difference in the tide levels between Barnstable and 
Buzzards Bay amounted to five feet, which would not have been a serious matter. He found upon 
further engineer examination, however, that the difference in February would amount to fourteen feet. 
This would result in a tremendous rush of water between the two bodies, and the banks of the Canal 
would be tom out by it unless they were constructed of solid masonry, at enormous expense. ” 

In a symposium entitled “ Do we need a Canal for our coastwise shipping, and where? ” which was 
published in the Boston Sunday Globe, March 31, 1901. Mr. Otis Kimball was quoted in part as follows: 

“ The distance across the cape is only a few miles, and it seems a natural place for a canal, and has 
always attracted attention from its supposed natural advantages, but investigation has always proved 
what this very narrow and ever-growing narrower piece of land shows in its history and conformation, 
that it was created by and because it was a place for the war of the elements. The tides strike it on 
either side, the waves come in mountain-high in storms, and the sand piles up in the whirlwinds. At 
great expense, harbors, breakwaters, dams, and all that nature has not provided in that line must be 
constructed, and it is a question if this is possible from an engineering point of view, for to secure a har¬ 
bor entrance to a canal which must be open and entered at all seasons and hours, there must be a depth 
of 26 feet at low water at both entrances of the canal. As the tide on one side rises several feet more than 
on the other, and not at the same time, and as the entrance harbors would have to be cut down 26 feet 
below the lowest tide and surrounding flats, great retaining walls must be made, a most difficult, perhaps 
practieallv an impossible undertaking, but unless this is done there must be locks and a great basin of 
water where the fleet of ships at either end can float at low tide. 

“ The Wevmouth-Brockton-Taunton Canal route has no engineering difficulties to contend with. 
The approaches are by rivers which can be deepened by dredging, as is now being done in both rivers 
bv the national government, so that the largest ship can at anv hour or tide steam up to the locks. 
On the side hills, at either end. the pneumatic locks would quickly lift the vessel to the Canal level and 
it would proceed on its way, through the fields of an inland country instead of as, in the case of Cape Cod, 
exposed to the gales and storms of a rough coast.’’ 

Several starts have at various periods been made upon actual construction of the Cape Cod Canal, 
and the strongest assurances given that the work was to proceed to immediate completion; yet, not¬ 
withstanding the large sums of money expended, the undertaking has been repeatedly abandoned. 

OPINION OF CAPT. GEO. W. ELDRIDGE, 

The Noted Hydrographer and Marine Chart Publisher, on the Canal. 

Boston, Mass., May 1, 1907. 

E. B. Mellen, Esq., 

Chairman Committee on Statistics . Brockton Board of Trade. 

My dear Sir: In compliance with your request, as to my opinion relative to the feasibilitv and value 
of a Canal from Narragansett Bay to Boston, via Fall River. Taunton and Brockton, I will sav; that I 
consider it perfectly feasible and undoubtedly of great value, probably beyond human estimation at the 
present time. 




THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


47 


In treating upon the subject of a Canal upon the route, as designated by you, and shown on the map 
on page forty-four, I shall adhere closely to facts within mv personal experience, actuated bv practical 
knowledge of the proposed route of the Canal. This knowledge has been gained in several ways: first, as 
a resident of Cape Cod; second, as a master mariner and navigator, and lastly, as author of Eldridge's 
Charts of the Atlantic Coast. 

Boston is the commercial heart of New England, but it is, at the same time, the most dangerous 
and difficult port to approach and enter on the Atlantic Coast of the United States. This is conceded 
by all maritime interests and is corroborated by my personal observation, and experience as a navigator 
and hydrographical expert for the last fifty years. 

Much has been said and written about the dangers to navigators about Cape Cod, of which I shall 
treat later on, but few know, or realize, the difficulties that confront the mariner in approaching and 
entering the harbor of Boston, even after he has safely run the gauntlet of Vineyard Sound, Nantucket 
Shoals and Old Cape Cod, which lies, like a monster of old, ever readv to craunch the ribs of “ye noble 
ship," and bleach the bones of the hapless crews that fail to clear its remorseless maw. 

Much has been said and volumes written in regard to the dangerous shoals that lie hidden off there, 
the shores of Cape Cod. No exaggeration is possible in regard to this apprehension. Some idea mav 
be had of the peculiarly hazardous part of this coast, when I state that at the present writing, April 
25, 1907, there are 153 aids to navigation installed in this vicinity bv our government, of which 2S 
are lighthouses and lightships; or to be more exact, there have been established 128 lighthouses, light¬ 
ships and buoys as warnings against the dangers between the the entrance of Vineyard Sound and Boston 
Light, a distance of only 120 miles. Our government has done her best and with liberal hand given 
aid to the mariner in every way that man can devise. She has adopted and given to her ocean sons 
the great fresnel lens lantern that throws its wonderful rays out into the night, some 30 miles distant. 
She has placed upon many dangerous ledges and shoals the wondrous gas-lighted buoys, with a capacity 
of six months of continual burning; the marvelous automatic whistling buov, sounding continually bv 
the action of the sea, followed up by numerous bell-buoys, that clang incessantly by the arm of old 
Neptune himself. These with the great nun and can buoys, together with others of every class and 
color, make an array of aids to navigation not excelled by any nation in the world. 

But notwithstanding all this, the government, possessed of simply finite means, cannot control the 
winds of Heaven, the treacherous tidal currents that are never at rest, nor the ever shifting sands that 
form the subtle shoals south of Cape Cod. 

And now we come to the question, and consideration, of delay to shipping, caused by the conditions 
aforesaid. For manv years I have been in position where I could see and know of the enforced delay of 
vessels bound around Cape Cod to Boston, or to other ports farther east. It is not an uncommon thing 
to see a hundred sail of vessels at anchor in Vineyard Haven Harbor, or in Nantucket Sound awaiting an 
opportunity to get to their coveted port. Large fleets lie idle for days, oftentimes weeks, waiting, 
waiting, for a “chance” to get around the dreaded Cape. I have seen as many as 381 vessels in Vine¬ 
yard Haven Harbor at one time, waiting, waiting. This fleet was detained twenty-one days. The 
expense per day of an ordinary vessel, say of 1000-tons’ capacity, is from 820 to $25 per day. This 
includes wages of officers and crew, food and incidental expenses. This multiplied by one hundred 
amounts to $2,000 per day; and ten days eat up $20,000. The loss incurred by the forced delay of 
this one fleet amounted to nearly $150,000. 

Many a captain has seen the profits of his voyage gradually melt away by the forced detention, or 
factor known as Weather. I have known many cases where the master of a vessel has become desperate, 
as day after day piled up his expenses, when in the face of a storm he went to sea and made almost 
superhuman effort to go to Boston, only to be picked up by some treacherous shoal, or flung into the 
breakers on Cape Cod lee shore, 

Where the roaring of the blast 

Makes grim dirges of the surges; 

’Tis his requiem and his last. 








48 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAI 


The delay or detention referred to is not only a source of great loss, oftentimes, to the owners of 
vessels, but the consignees of the cargoes are often embarrassed and suffer losses, because of the uncer¬ 
tainty and enforced delays they are subjected to by the dangers and difficulties encountered in the 
passage around Cape Cod. 

The maritime interests of the country have sought for some means of escape or evasion of the con¬ 
ditions existing, even to the consideration and investigation of a possible route, or Canal, across Cape 
Cod at various points, but notably from Buzzard’s Bay to Cape Cod Bay, because to the layman it 
“looks easy on the map,’’ but invariably such a project has been considered impracticable by all com¬ 
petent authorities, both governmental and private. The reasons why this route is impracticable, I will 
give a little later on. 

A Canal running from Narragansett Bay to Boston, via Fall River, Taunton and Brockton, in my 
opin ion is perfectly feasible and of great commercial value to the cities specified along the route, as well as 
Boston and all New England. This route falls short of or comes in west of Cape Cod, with its dangers 
and elements of delay involving tremendous losses, as enumerated in this article. Raw material for 
manufacturers, such as coal, iron, etc., can be laid down in Boston and adjacent cities from 25 to 30 
percent, less than t>y the present route around Cape Cod. This proposed New York, Brockton and 
Boston Canal would also insure regular service by all steamship lines from New York, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore and the South. All dangers of the sea would be eliminated. When a vessel once entered 
Narragansett Bay, she would have a still-water route from Newport to Boston. 

Now, let us consider for a moment the project of a proposed Canal from Buzzard’s Bay to Cape Cod 
Bav. For hundreds of years this route has been considered, Lmt as I have stated herein, the matter has 
been always declared impracticable, or not warranting the expenditure of the many millions necessarv 
to complete a Ship Canal across Cape Cod, w r ith its necessary breakwaters to protect its entrances. Let 
us see what the obstacles, or conditions, are that verify my assertions and the conclusion that both State 
and private parties have arrived at. I^et us imagine ourselves at the entrance of Buzzards Bay. What 
are the conditions? First, we find many dangers to navigators in the bay—ledges, rocks, shoals galore. 
There are in this bay at the present time, 75 aids to navigation, established and maintained by our 
government; lighthouses, lightships, buoys and beacons in every direction. All mariners know full well 
that Buzzards Bay is a dangerous and undesirable place in heavy weather; having as it does, a rake of 
24 miles from the open sea. Shallow water extends out into Buzzards Bay several miles from its head, 
which would necessitate very extensive and costly dredging before reaching the short line. When that 
is reached, we find Cape Cod is a huge sand dune, the character of which is most treacherous and subtle. 
It is ever shifting, and a Canal through the Cape would necessitate a construction of solid masonry. 
When once through this Canal (in imagination) the mariner finds himself on a lee shore 50 miles from 
Boston, and in order to get out or clear of the land, it would be necessary to have a huge breakwater here 
to protect the entrance of the Canal from the incoming ocean waves, that break with tremendous force 
during northerly gales. When once through this imaginary Canal the mariner finds himself, as before 
stated, some 50 miles from Boston, unable to proceed in heavy weather except under powerful steam. 
Again, I find by actual comparison, on my charts, that a vessel is as far from Boston, after she has passed 
through this Cape Cod Canal, as she would be if back of Cape Cod off Nauset Idghts, and with north¬ 
easterly winds the latter position would be preferable; or in other words, a vessel is as far from Boston 
at the entrance of the proposed Cape Cod Canal on the Cap Cod Bay side, as she would be off Nauset 
Lights, Cape Cod (see Map), and in some conditions of weather the vessel would be in a worse position 
at the entrance of the Canal than at Nauset. I believe my assertion on this point will be corroborated 
by all master mariners. 

Thus, by comparing the present route around Cape Cod to Boston with that of the proposed Canal 
across Cape Cod at Buzzard’s Bay, and that under consideration from Narragansett Bay to Boston, one 
can readily see that the New York, Brockton and Boston route is a perfectly safe one, running as it does 
from Still Water to Still Water, a distance of 37 miles saved over the Cape Cod route, and when once 














PROPOSED RHODE ISLAND CANAL, as advocated by Edward Parnsh, Asst. Engineer in Engineer’s Office, U. S. War Department, Newport, R. I. 





























THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 49 

through the Canal the ship is in Boston, whereas, by the Buzzards Bay route, when the ship is through the 
Cape Cod Canal she is 50 miles from Boston, on a lee shore, the most undesirable and dreaded position 
known to mariners. The natural deduction I make, therefore, by comparison is, that the proposed New 
York, Brockton and Boston Canal would be perfectly safe, is shorter, quicker, and consequently cheaper, 
than by any other proposed route. 

Very truly yours, 

GEO. W. ELDRIDGE, 

Hydrographer. 


A PROPOSED RHODE ISLAND CANAL. 

The following letter from Congressman William S. Greene, Chairman of the Committee on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries, is self-explanatory: 

"Fall River, Mass., September 21, 1908. Mr. E. B. Mellen, Brockton, Mass.,— Dear Sir: Enclosed 
I hand you a copy of Newport Daily News ( September 12, 1908 ). This shows a Canal to begin at Watch 
Hill, and takes an inside route to Narragansett Bay. This will be of immense advantage to the Canal from 
Fall River to Boston via Brockton. I have ascertained that the corps of Engineers U. S. A. are not 
enthusiastic about the Cape Cod Canal. Wishing you every success, I am very respectfully yours, 

WILLIAM S. GREENE.” 


“TO AID COAL TRAFFIC 

‘‘Proposed Canal from Watch Hill to Protected Waters. 

‘‘Suggestion by Engineer Edward Parrish Which may be of Great Value to Commerce. 

“The great industries of New England, and in fact the well-being and comfort of a large proportion 
of its inhabitants, are so dependent upon the transportation of coal that the United States for many years 
has expended large sums of money in improving and safeguarding the various avenues of water trans¬ 
portation leading from the ports of shipment to those of receipt, supplemented in some cases by appro¬ 
priations from the States. To aid in determining the advisability and extent of the appropriations to be 
made for works of improvement, commercial statistics of the various harbors and rivers under considera¬ 
tion are annually collected. These show for the year 1906, at the points where works were in progress, 
a total of 10,850,036 tons for the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 
Of this about 3,500,000 tons come into Narragansett Bay, the balance going around Cape Cod, except 
about 500,000 tons which stop at New Bedford and the smaller ports along Vineyard and Nantucket 
Sounds. This coal comes from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Norfolk, that coming from the 
Chesapeake and Delaware Bays being carried in barges, usually of a sufficiently substantial build to 
stand the ocean trip, and sailing vessels. The New York coal, coming as it does through Long Island 
Sound, particularly that intended for Narragansett Bay, can be carried in barges of much lighter build and 
consequently at less cost. 

‘‘But with the approach of the fall and winter storms comes the annual tale of disaster and loss to 
the towing fleet, too often accompanied with loss of life. The almost universal criticism is: Why 

should not the Government regulate this traffic by requiring that more substantial vessels be used in 
the trade? They must come around Point Judith, between which point and Watch Hill most of these 
losses occur. In fact, from a map prepared in the United States engineer’s office in this city a few years 
ago, showing the location of 1,076 marine disasters between Watch Hill and Provincetown, Cape Cod, 377 
occurred along the coast of Rhode Island, including Block Island. It must not be forgotten, however, 
that the so-called ‘coffin barge’ is a boon to New England in the matter of a cheaper form of transporta¬ 
tion, and instead of removing the barge it seems to be entirely practicable to remove the danger and retain 
all the advantages of the cheaper conveyance. 




50 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


“Mr. Edward Parrish, assistant engineer in the Newport engineer’s office, has suggested that it 
would be possible to construct a Canal or inland waterway from Watch Hill to the protected waters of 
Narragansett Bay, and entirely do away with the dangers of the southern Rhode Island coast and Point 
Judith, which would enable shippers to send in safely their cheap form of barges to the very centers of 
the industrial activities about Providence and Fall River. 

“The State of Massachusetts a few years since made a survey for a Canal from Boston Harbor to 
Fall River, by w r ay of Taunton River. This was a Lock Canal, having a summit level of 135 feet, by 
reason of the legislative requirement in the act authorizing the survey, that the Canal should pass through 
certain points. It is believed, however, that a much lower summit level might be attained by a modifi¬ 
cation of the route then surveyed. The execution of these two projects would be of almost incalculable 
benefit to New England, eliminating as they do the dangers of both Point Judith and Cape Cod. 

“The suggested Rhode Island Canal would have as its western terminus a point near Watch Hill, 
and there enter into Little Narragansett Bay and Fisher’s Island Sound. Coming east from Watch 
Hill, it would pass through Brightman’s Pond, Quonocontaug Pond, Charlestown Pond, Green Hill Pond, 
Trustom Pond, Point Judith Pond, Silver Lake and Pettaquamscott River; thence across a low divide 
of less than 40 feet elevation to Bissell’s Cove, just below Wickford—31 \ miles, 24^ of wffiich are 
flowed at present by tidewater. 

“The projects referred to w 7 ould form important links in the great proposed inland waterway from 
Boston to Charleston, N. C., concerning which there will doubtless be much said during the next session 
of Congress. The New England end of this Atlantic coast Canal, however, has generally been regarded 
as requiring only the construction of the short Canal across the Cape Cod Peninsula at Sandwich, elim¬ 
inating the passage around the Cape. But by that route there are still retained 60 miles of dangerous ocean 
navigation from the ‘ Race ’ to the entrance to Buzzard's Bay and a like distance through Cape Cod Bay, ex¬ 
posed to the full force of all the north and northeasterly storms, the very ones which render so dangerous the 
passage around the Cape itself. 

“Were it possible to rehabilitate the early Canals from the coal mines to tidewater, which unfortunately 
have fallen mostly into disuse through railroad ownership, it would be possible with the Rhode Island and 
Boston-Fall River Canals to supply all eastern New England with its coal direct from the mines to the con¬ 
sumer, without re-shipment at any point after loading at the mines, even from the soft coal districts in West 
Virginia. 

“Had a small portion of the enormous expenditures for the development and equipment of the coal 
roads been devoted to the development and enlargement of the original Canals to tidewater, the coal 
consumer in New England would not now be paying his proportionate share of the interest on this great 
railroad debt. Now, Mr. Hill, president of the Northern Pacific Road, says it is necessary to expend 
five thousand million dollars to bring the railroads into a condition to properly handle the traffic of the 
country. Under such conditions the waterways, so long neglected as means of transportation, merit 
and are receiving the attention of those having the future welfare of the country in charge, largely through 
the Inland Waterway Commission appointed by President Roosevelt, assisted by unofficial organizations 
and associations of various local mercantile societies, all awakening to the value of the inland waterways 
as an aid to the solution of the great transportation problem. 

“France has expended more than $700,000,000 on her inland waterways; Canada, $95,000,000, and 
is now taking the grain trade away from New York; Manchester, England, $85,000,000; Belgium, 
$90,000,000; Russia is contemplating an outlay of $700,000,000; Germany, Austria, Italy and other 
foreign countries are all striving to bring their waterways and harbors into a state of the highest efficiency, 
and the United States is now awakening to their enormous economic importance.” 





ELECTRIC ELEVATOR, BUFFALO, N. Y. 


ELEVATOR AND BARGES, ERIE CANAL, BUFFALO. 

Photographs by Bliss Bros-. Buffalo. 



ERIE CANAL, BUFFALO, AT NIGHT. 

Photo, by the • Buffalo Express.” 


ORE DOCKS ON BLACKWELL CANAL. 




Photo, by Bliss Bros., Buffalo. 






















LOCKS ON ERIE CANAL, AT LOCKPORT, N. Y. 

NEW YORK’S NEW $101,000,000 ERIE CANAL. 

The genius of Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York grasped the importance of connecting the 
Hudson River with the Great Lakes more than one hundred years ago. The Erie Canal sprang into life, 
and the city of New York is the result. Within the last ten years it has come about that the Mississippi 
River and its vast tributaries have made New Orleans the grain seaport of the continent, and 
(the Panama Canal being in sight), the wisdom of the descendants of DeWitt Clinton is shown in the 
recent appropriation of $101,000,000 to make the Erie Canal a 1000-ton barge highway from the Lakes 
to the sea at New York. 

On the other hand, Chicago and New Orleans are preparing to clasp hands over a Ship Canal con¬ 
necting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River. 

There are four profitable trunk-line railway systems which parallel the Great Lakes from east to 
west; and yet the lake tonnage between Duluth at the western extremity of Lake Superior and inter¬ 
mediate point and Buffalo at the eastern extremity of Lake Erie, only 1500 miles in extent, is five times 
as great as the combined coastwise tonnage of all the Atlantic and Gulf States, 4000 miles in extent. 

In 1898, Governor Black of New York, in his Annual Message at the opening of the Legislature, 
called attention to the fact that the commerce of New York was on the decline, while that of other tide¬ 
water ports was increasing. 

This message led to the appointment of the New York Commerce Commission to examine into the 
commerce of New York, the cause of its decline, and the means for its revival. 

The importance of the subject was likewise urged upon the Legislature by Theodore Roosevelt, 
then Governor of New York, immediately upon his inauguration, in his first Annual Message at the open¬ 
ing of the Legislative Session in 1899, as follows: 

“ Of recent years the city of New York has fallen off relatively to other cities as regards the increase 
of her commerce, and in exports there has been a positive decrease. Under my predecessor, a Com¬ 
mission was appointed to examine into the cause of this decline. I recommend that this Commission 
be allowed ample additional time to close its work, the subject being one of such vast importance, and 
that it be given needful aid.” 

The report of this Commission was filed in 1900, and found as follows: 

‘‘The decline in New r York’s commerce has been steady and continuous for many years; it has been 
more pronounced during recent years, and has now reached serious proportions in an actual loss of 
exports. 





Photo, by J. I). Shroller, Troy, X. V. 

BOATS ENTERING THE ERIE CANAL FROM THE HUDSON RIVER. 


“This loss has been largely in exports of grain and flour. While New York has been steadily losing, 
Montreal, Boston, Baltimore, Newport News, and the Gulf ports of New Orleans and Galveston have 
made substantial gains. The State of New York has it within its power, through an adequate improve¬ 
ment of the Erie Canal, not only to apply the remedy that will secure it against further loss of its commerce, 
but that will secure to it as well the restoration of that which has already been diverted." 

The present depth of the Erie Canal is but seven feet. Hence, for foreign or coastwise traffic there 
must be three trans-shipments, viz.: at the port of clearance, at Buffalo, and at New York or Montreal. 
The ruling depth on the Upper St. Lawrence is nine feet. This northern or Lake route is also closed for 
about five months of the year, yet the tonnage through the Sault Canal to Lake Superior alone, during 
the season of navigation, is now at least equal to that through the Suez Canal during the entire year. 
By this water route the territory of the Lake Basin is enabled to secure the benefit of competitive rates. 

On November 3, 1903, the tax payers of the State of New York, by a majority of over 245,000, voted 
in favor of the proposition to expend $101,000,000 in improving and enlarging the present Erie, Oswego 
and Champlain Canals, as provided by Chapter 147 of 1903, Laws of New York. 



Photo, by J. 1>. Shroiler, Troy, X. V. 


ERIE CANAL, ENTERING COHOES, N. Y. 








Photo, by J.D.Shroder, Troy, X. v. LOCKS ON ERIE CANAL, ENTERING TROY, N. Y. 


“The existing Canals are to be improved to 75 feet minimum bottom width and 12 feet minimum 
depth. 

“The new Canal will chiefly affect the coal trade in the Northwest and the grain-carrying trade. It 
is estimated that 1,000-ton barges can carry freights at a profit at a rate of fifty-two one-hundredths of a 
mill per ton-mile, or 26 1-10 cents per ton from Buffalo to New York, rates which the railroads cannot 
compete against, and which will abolish the differentials against New York of from 20 cents to $1 per ton 
in favor of other ports .’’-—World Almanac, 1904. 

The Erie Canal extends from the Hudson River at Albany to Lake Erie at Buffalo, N. Y., a distance 
of 351 miles. It has 72 locks, the summit level, 572 feet above sea level, being at Buffalo. There is a 
flight of 16 locks between West Troy and Cohoes which surmounts a difference of 121 feet in elevation in 
a distance of about 4 miles. At Lockport, 28 miles from Buffalo, there are 5 locks which overcome a 
difference of 60 feet in elevation. 

It is believed that the enlargement of the Erie Canal so as to carry boats of from 1,000 to 1,500 tons 
burden will cause such a great influx of people into the State along its banks, and so many additional 
manufacturing enterprises that the business of the railroads in the carriage of passengers and high-class 
freights will be very much augmented and the railroads will profit accordingly, although the Canal will 
carry the low-class freight at a much reduced rate. 



BARGES IN LOCKS AT WATERVLIET, (WEST TROY), N. Y., ON ERIE CANAL. 


















IN THE LOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN. 

ST. MARY’S FALLS (“SOO”) CANAL, MICHIGAN. 

From the special United States Government report on “Great Canals of the World,” issued in 1901, 
and the 1906 Report of Chief of Engineers, United States Army, we make the following excerpts: 

“There had been a Canal around the Falls in St. Mary’s River, between Lake Superior and Lake 
Michigan, available for vessels drawing not over 10 feet of water, from 1856 on; but there can hardly be 
said to have been a Ship Canal until 1881, when the United States Government completed a 17-foot 
channel between the Lakes, and provided a 515-foot lock, with a single lift of 18 feet, for carrying vessels 
from the level of one Lake to that of the other. The growth of the traffic through this Canal led the 
Dominion Government to construct a Canal around the Canadian side of the Falls in 1895, and in 1896 
the United States Canal was enlarged to a 20-foot channel and provided with an 800-foot lock. 

“The volume of traffic through this Canal far exceeds that through the Suez Canal. In 1881, the 
traffic of the old St. Mary’s Falls Canal was 1,560,000 tons as against 4,130,000 tons through the Suez 
Canal; but with the enlargement of the American Canal a rapid increase in traffic immediately developed, 
In 1889 it equalled that of the Suez Canal (about 7,000,000 tons in each); in 1895 a tonnage of 15,000,000 
tons went through the St. Mary’s Falls Canal, as compared with 8,500,000 tons through the Suez Canal.’’ 

“In 1900 the traffic had increased to 25,643,073 tons, and in 1906 the volume rose to the enormous 
amount of 51,751,080 tons. 

“ It is not too much to say that the development of the carrying trade on the Great Lakes, both in the 
number and kind of vessels used, is due almost wholly to the ‘Soo’ Canal.” 

“ During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, the United States Canal was opened to navigation 
248 days, the closed season being from December 17, 1905, to April 12, 1906, inclusive. A total of 16,299 
vessels, aggregating 32,559,602 registered tons, and carrying 41,276,862 tons of freight and 29,344 pas¬ 
sengers, passed through the locks in 10,016 lockages. The Canadian Canal at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, 
open 251 days, made 4,102 lockages, and passed 5,658 vessels, 5,010,589 registered tonnage, carrying 
4,738,154 tons of freight and 25,987 passengers; making the combined traffic through the two Canals 
46,015,016 tons of freight and 55,331 passengers. 

“The principal items of freight during the past fiscal year through both Canals were: Iron ore, 
31.887,544 tons; coal, 6,945,199 tons; flour, 6,151,853 barrels; wheat, 78,769,762 bushels; other grain, 
48,128,812 bushels; lumber, 964,407 M. feet B. M.; and general merchandise, 978,473 tons. 

“Other statistics in relation to this traffic and commerce are summarized in the following state¬ 


ments: 







THE SAULT STE. MARIE CANAL, MICHIGAN. 


Steamship “Northwest” passing through the Weitzel Lock. 





























FOUR BOATS IN THE POE LOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN. 

GENERAL SUMMARY 
For American and Canadian Canals Together. 


Total freight carried, tons. 51,751,080 

Total net registered tons. 41,098,324 

Total mile-tons.43,596,953,680 

Total valuation placed on freight carried . $537,463,454 

Total amount paid for freight transportation . $36,666,889 

Total number of registered vessels using canals. 879 

Total number of passages by unregistered crafts carrying freight. 810 

Total valuation placed on registered vessels. $94,532,500 

Total number of passengers transported . 63,033 

Average distance freight was carried, miles . 842.4 

Average cost per ton for freight transportation . . $0.71 

Average cost per mile per ton, mills,. .84 

Average value per ton of freight carried. $10.39 

Time American canal was operated, days . 249 

Time Canadian canal was operated, days. 253 

Freight carried by— 

Registered vessels, tons. 51,652,262 

Unregistered vessels, tons . 98,818 

American vessels, per cent. 95 

Canadian vessels, per cent. 5 

Passengers carried by- 

American vessels, per cent. 43 

Canadian vessels, per cent. 57 


“ Iron and steel may well be given the first place as the largest items in the traffic through the Canal. 
The most striking features in the iron and steel industries since 1880 have been the decline in the impor¬ 
tance of the Pennsylvania Mines, the development of the Lake Superior region, and the transfer of the 
manufacture of pig iron and steel from the east to the west of the Alleghenies. Several factors have 
served to bring about this remarkable shift. The Superior ores are of the quality available for making 
steel by the Bessemer process; the large deposits have made profitable the use of labor-saving machinery 
in mining and the construction of special terminals for loading and unloading the ore. 






























I 



THE WEITZEL LOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE, MICHIGAN, EMPTY. 


“An interesting case of interacting causes is to be seen in the relation between the Lake Superior 
iron mines and the shipping on the Great Lakes. It was the development of the iron mines 
which furnished the trade of the large steel steamships and also the material for constructing them, while 
the use of the larger and better ships has lowered freight rates and still further developed the iron 
industry. 

“The development of the Lake Superior iron mines has been an important factor in causing the 
great reduction in the price of Bessemer steel, and it is this reduction that has made possible the largely 
increased use of steel in shipbuilding, in bridges, in heavier rails, and in the tall buildings of our large 
cities. Indirectly, then, all these improvements have depended to a large degree on the existence of the 
St. Mary’s Falls Canal.” 

“From 1855 to 1881 the Canal was controlled by the State of Michigan, and tolls were charged to 
cover operating and repair expenses, the rate at first being 6J cents per registered ton, which was grad¬ 
ually reduced to 2J cents. Similarly, the minimum charge for lockage of a boat was reduced from five 
to three dollars. Since control was transferred to the United States in 1881, the Canal has been free for 
public use by all nations.” 

THE CHICAGO SHIP CANAL. 

“The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal connects Lake Michigan at Chicago with the Illinois River at 
Lockport, a distance of 34 miles. The Canal was cut for the purpose of giving to the city of Chicago 
proper drainage facilities by reversing the movement of water, which formerly flowed into Lake Michigan 
through the Chicago River, and turning a current from Lake Michigan through the Chicago River to the 
Illinois River at Lockport, and thence down the Illinois River to the Mississippi. The minimum depth 
of the Canal is 22 feet, its width at bottom 160 feet, and the width at the top from 162 to 290 feet, accord¬ 
ing to the class of material through which it is cut. The work was begun September 3, 1892, and com¬ 
pleted and the water turned into the channel January 2, 1900. 

The total excavation in its construction included 28,500,000 cubic yards of glacial drift and 
12,910,000 cubic yards of solid rock, an aggregate of 41,410,000 cubic yards. In addition to this the 
construction of a new channel for the Desplaines River became necessary in order to permit the Canal 
to follow the bed of that river, and the material excavated in that work amounted to 2,068,659 cubic 
yards, making a grand total displacement in the work of 43,478,659 cubic yards of material. 

“All bridges along the Canal are movable structures. The total cost of construction, including 
interest account, aggregated $34,000,000, of which $21,379,675 was for excavation and about $3,000,000 
for rights of way and $4,000,000 for building railroad and highway bridges over the Canal. The City 
and State authorities by whom the Canal was constructed are now proposing to Congress to make this 
Canal a commercial highway in case Congress will increase the depth of the Illinois and Mississippi 

















FIRST BOATS LOCKED THROUGH THE POE LOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH., AUG. 3, 1896. 

U. S. Lighthouse Boat "Hancock” and U. S. Revenue Cutter "Andrew Johnson.” 



IN THE LOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH. IN THE LOCK, SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH. 






























60 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


Rivers to a depth of 14 feet, with locks for fleets of barges from Lockport, the terminus of the drainage 
Canal, to St. Louis. This, it is argued, would give through water transportation from Lake Michigan to 
the Gulf by way of the drainage Canal, the Illinois River, and the Mississippi River, and would enable 
the United States in case of war to quickly transport light-draft war vessels from the Gulf to the Lakes.” 

—“Great Canals of the World.” 

LAKE ERIE AND OHIO RIVER SHIP CANAL. 

Mr. John E. Shaw of Pittsburg, Pa., in an address to the Merchants and Manufacturers Association 
of that city, November 29, 1904, made the following interesting remarks, to wit: 

“ In 18S9 the Legislature of Pennsylvania appointed a Commission to inquire into the practicability 
of a Ship Canal between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, and appropriated $10,000 for its use. 

This Commission, representing a State movement, sought for a Canal within the State of Penn¬ 
sylvania. 

“It reported a Canal could be built via the Beaver and Shenango Rivers to Conneaut Harbor at 
a cost of about $30,000,000. 

“In 1893 a Provisional Committee of thirty-five members was organized in Pittsburg to inquire 
into the matter of a Canal to Lake Erie. 

“This Committee, having representative business men from Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio 
and West Virginia, raised a fund of about $40,000 and put three corps of engineers in the field, headed 
by Col. Thomas P. Roberts, and made a most exhaustive inquiry into the matter, covering over three 
years in its investigation, and issued its report in 1897. 

“It found it entirely feasible to build a Canal via the Beaver and Mahoning Rivers to Niles, 
Ohio; thence in almost a straight line across the lowest divide between the Ohio River and Lake Erie 
to Ashtabula Harbor, the actual Canal construction being only 52.64 miles from Niles to Ashtabula, 
including 31.35 miles to summit level without a lock; the remainder from the headquarters of the Ohio to 
Niles being mainly providing slackwater navigation in the natural water courses, and in some instances 
straightening the bed of the Mahoning River in the bottom lands where extreme curvature exists. 

“The total length of Canal from Davis Island Dam to Ashtabula is 122.16 miles. 

“The dimensions of the Canal recommended were 15 feet depth, bottom width 107 feet, surface 160 
feet, locks 340 feet long and 45 feet wide and 184 feet less lockage and 92 feet less elevation, than the 
route surveyed by the Pennsylvania Canal Commission to Conneaut Harbor. The total number of locks 
is 33, as compared with 133 locks on the old Beaver and Erie Canal via Conneaut Lake. The summit 
level is 327 feet above the mean level of Lake Erie, and 197 feet above the Ohio River at Pittsburg. The 
descent from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario through the Welland Canal is 327 feet, exactly the same as 
from the summit of our Canal to Lake Erie. 

“The Welland Canal has 25 locks; ours will require only 17 from summit to lake. 

“The Committee found by actual survey that the average depth of water from McKeesport to Davis 
Island Dam was 18 feet, and that by a combination of dredging and moderate raising of the dams, now 
existing or projected in our rivers above Pittsburg, a uniform depth of 15 feet can be maintained in our 
rivers above Davis Island Dam at reasonable and moderate expense, which would be provided by the 
government to meet the new conditions established by having 15 feet of water to the Lakes. The esti¬ 
mated cost of the Canal is $33,000,000, the expenditure of which great sum during the construction of the 
Canal would in itself cause a great increase of prosperity for this community. 

“The Committee found also that specially constructed types of vessels adapted to both Lake and 
Canal navigation, could profitably handle this traffic without transfer of cargo at Lake Erie, at not exceed¬ 
ing one mill per ton per mile for freight charge through the Canal. 

“It has been stated that a 15-foot Ship Canal between Pittsburg and Lake Erie would have a 
capacity for tonnage movement equal to 15 double-track railways, and could perform the service at 
about one-sixth to one-eighth the rate at which the railroads can do it. The whaleback steamer with two 
barges in tow, which could come through the Canal carrying 7,000 tons, is equal to 140 cars with an 
average load of 50 tons, or four trains of 35 cars each.” 

“The greatest market for the consumption of our coal and coke products lies in the Great Lakes 
territory, and from this territory comes the iron ore which sustains our iron and steel industries. 

“More tonnage passes through the Detroit River than any water route in the world, and over 50 
per cent, of that tonnage is ore and coal moving to and from the Pittsburg district.” 

On June 30, 1906, the Act of Congress incorporating the Lake Erie and Ohio River Ship Canal was 
approved. 




Photo, by James M ihor, Duluth, Minn. Copyright. Reproduced by permission. 


VIEW OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA, HARBOR. 

Principal Port for Ore Shipments on the Great Lakes. 



Photo, by James Maher, Duluth. Minn. Copyright. Reproduced by permission. 

ORE DOCKS AT DULUTH, MINNESOTA. 



Photo, by James Maher, Duluth, Minn. Copyright. Reproduced by permission. 

BOATS BLOCKADED IN DULUTH HARBOR. 






















From stereograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York. 

THE GOTA CANAL AT TROLLHATTAN, SWEDEN. 

Showing steamer emerging from the wonderful locks. 




















"Photo, by the “Buffalo Express. 

“ON THE CANAL” AT WELLAND, ONTARIO. 


THE GEORGIAN BAY (CANADA) CANAL PROJECT. 

0 

Recent acRices from Ottawa state that the Georgian Bay Canal Commission has practically com¬ 
pleted at a cost of some $600,000 a thorough survey of the proposed 21-foot waterway from Georgian 
Bay to Montreal via the French River, Lake Nipissing, and the Ottawa River. The report of the Com¬ 
mission, giving full and reliable details as to the whole cost of the completed Canal, the location and 
character of the structural work required, the water-power available, etc., is now in course of preparation, 
and will be presented to Parliament early next session. For the first time the country will then have 
reliable and adequate information as to the cost and feasibility of this great project which has now 
been before the public for half a century. The engineers of the Commission have not yet compiled a 
final estimate as to the whole cost of the Canal, but from the information now available it is safe to say 
that the total expenditure required for a continuous and easily navigable waterway with a minimum 
depth of 21 feet from Georgian Bay to tidewater, will be close to $105,000,000. The report, when pre¬ 
sented, will also show that from an engineering standpoint the enterprise is entirely feasible, with no very 
difficult engineering difficulties to surmount. The only question for Parliament to consider will be 
whether the benefits which will accrue to the Dominion through the construction of a waterway making 
Fort William practically an ocean port and shortening the present distance by water from Fort William 
to Montreal by more than 400 miles, will justify an expenditure larger by $15,000,000 than has been 
spent altogether on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence waterways system. The engineers have been 
able to solve the chief engineering problem of the canal, namely, the question of maintaining a suffi¬ 
cient water supply across the height of land between Lake Nipissing and Trout Lake. * * * * Referring 
to the early construction of the Canal, Sir Wilfrid Laurier recently said that if he had the money 
to do so he would begin work tomorrow. The Canal will link the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence, 
utilizing the Ottawa and French Rivers and several extensive lakes. Concerning the project, the 
Daily Telegraph , St. John, N. B., remarks: 

‘‘Sir Wilfrid Laurier has spoken from time to time with considerable confidence concerning the 
Georgian Bay plan, and the report of the Commission may be said to have brought the Canal within 
range. For a year or two the country may hesitate over the initial cost, but work on the Canal will 
probably be started before very long. The Maritime Provinces will have to pay their share of the cost 
of this great waterway when it comes. They will do so cheerfully upon the assurance that Parliament 
regards as immediately necessary the equipment of maritime ports for the proper handling of the great 
winter traffic which must go forward after inland navigation is closed by the frost.” 

—‘‘Shipping Illustrated,” June 1, 1907. 










From Stereograph. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York. 


THE BANDAK NORDSJO CANAL IN NORWAY. 

By the locks in this Canal, steamboats climb the steep hill beside the Urang Waterfall. 















THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


65 


FOREIGN EXAMPLES OF CANAL CONSTRUCTION. 

An excellent summary of the development of Canals abroad was recently published by The Mer¬ 
chants and Manufacturers Association of Pittsburg, Pa., in advocating the necessity for a Canal to connect 
Pittsburg and Lake Erie, for the construction of which Congress has since enacted legislation for the 
incorporation of a Canal Company. 

We quote therefrom: 

“ France began building Canals as early as the Christian era, until she now has over 3,200 miles of 
Canals, and with improved rivers over 7,000 miles of Canal and river transportation in operation, and 
the points in France showing the greatest growth in population and commercial activity, and where the 
railroads do the largest and most profitable business, are located on these waterways. 

“In France it has become a settled conviction, accepted by the railways themselves, that water 
communication is a necessity to the economical operation of the railway, and that the Canals create the 
conditions making it possible for manufacturing industries to thrive and prosper, and population and 
wealth to increase; and the railways share in the increased prosperity through the carriage of passengers 
and increased commerce in manufactured products, and the distribution of same to the consumer. 

“In the last twenty-five years Germany has expended large sums in connecting the interior rivers 
with each other, and with the ocean by Canals, affording the cheapest trantportation for the raw materials 
entering into her manufactured products; and the result has been a vast and rapid increase in the popu¬ 
lation and commerce of her cities, and the increase of business on the railroads that were supposed to 
be affected showed a greater percentage of increase than on the waterways themselves. 

“Is it not a significant fact that immediately following this activity of Germany in improving her 
waterway service, she passed England in manufacturing supremacy? 

“ Liverpool established her commercial position in the wrnrld by expending 8106,000,000 on improve¬ 
ments at the mouth of the Mersey River. 

“Glasgow caused the ebbing tide of commerce to flow backward into her midst by spend¬ 
ing 860,000,000 in digging her way out to the sea by way of the Clyde.” 

MANCHESTER. 

In the article by Mr. Chandler, previously quoted, reference is made to the city of Manchester, 
England, as furnishing a striking modern instance of the value of an artificial waterway in developing 
an inland city. 

Most great cities owe their importance either to geographical situation or to the growth of special 
trades, to which, in many instances, the material surroundings and conditions contribute; or to special 
circumstances resulting from human ingenuity or science. 

Manchester long held a predominant position as the home of cotton manufactures, and the center of 
commerce created by them. Its commercial supremacy and the special advantage which it had hitherto 
enjoyed, began to be impaired. However, at the commencement of the last quarter of the last century, 
the competition to which the district was subject had become so severe, that the cost of transit had 
become the determining factor in many of the heavier industries. From this and other kindred reasons, 
the agitation for the construction of a Ship Canal started. 

At the time the Canal was projected (1882) , the city had entered upon a period not merely of arrested 
development, but of actual depression. Her industries were languishing, some of them leaving her, and 
many of her business establishments becoming tenantless, because of the greater advantage of Liver¬ 
pool and other points in the United Kingdom located on deep water. 

Manchester in her great effort had in view not so much to reduce distance, as rates—to bring the 
ocean in competition with railroads. Persisting in the face of many defeats and hindrances, both in 
Parliament, and out, and against the united, bitter, and well-organized opposition of the railroad interests 
centering in the city, and the Mersey Docks and Harbor Board Corporation of Liverpool, overcoming 
physical difficulties almost unparalleled even in the history of great engineering undertakings, January 
1, 1894, saw the Canal open and doing business. 






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BARGE ON THE BRIDGEWATER CANAL. [Part of the Manchester Ship Canal System]. COTTON SHED OF MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL CO. 

Crossing the Aqueduct at Barton, over the Ship Canal. MANCHESTER, ENGLAND. 

VIEWS OF THE MANCHESTER (ENGLAND) SHIP CANAL, DOCKS AND WARE-HOUSES. 

From photographs furnished by Mr. Gloster Armstrong, 11 Broadway. New York City, representative of the Canal Co. in New York. 

















67 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 

The Canal cost $75,000,000, of which sum the city bonded itself to the extent of $50,000,000. 

Mr. George Campbell of Brockton, commenting on the difficulties surmounted in securing the con¬ 
struction of the Manchester Ship Canal, recently stated: 

“ I was in Manchester when the Canal project was started. 'The interest in it was very strong. The 
cities and towns on the line of the Canal bought blocks of shares with municipal funds; the mills and 
manufactories bought them in large blocks; the individual men in the district within 20 miles of the 
termini believing in the prosperity the Canal would bring, bought as much as they could. I took three 
shares at £20 ($100) per share. 

“ Parliament allowed a 5 per cent, interest to be paid on the shares from the first, because it seemed 
as though a great many years might pass before dividends could be paid out of profits. It is only thirteen 
years since the Canal was completed, and they started to pay genuine dividends long ago. I kept my 
three shares until about two years after I came to this city, and then sold them to a man in Manchester. 

“There was a hard fight to get the right to dig the Canal. Two lines of railroad paralleled the 
route, and they fought it with all their might in Parliament and out of Parliament. Finally they were 
beaten, and the result has been that instead of having to go out of business, both railroad lines are doing 
better to-day than they ever did before, on account of the growth of the district.” 

Did it pay Manchester to do this? 

For answer we quote from a paper read by W. Henry Hunter, C. E., Chief Engineer of the Manchester 
Ship Canal, at the International Engineering Congress, St. Louis, Mo., October 3 to 8, 1904. He says: 

“The operation of the Manchester Ship Canal has directly or indirectly affected beneficially the 
whole of the greatest industrial district on the face of the earth; a district of which the present popula¬ 
tion does not fall short of 10,000,000 persons, while in the more limited area, of which the city of 
Manchester is the heart and center, many industries have been saved from extinction and many others 
from decline and ultimate decay.” 

Mr. Hunter says further: 

“As surelv as in the days of our forefathers nations struggled between themselves for tribute from 
others, now they struggle for trade with others, and the issues are vital; it is verily a struggle for existence. 
In such a struggle the best-equipped community must have the advantage, and must succeed and survive, 
while the community which stands still where others are pressing forward, must fall back, must fail, and 
commercially perish. 

“Experience has shown that cheap and ready transport is an essential factor for the success of any 
trading community, and that transport of such character can only be assured where waterways deliver 
the trade from the iron grip of monopoly. 

“The statement, therefore, that waterways must form part of the equipment of any progressive 
nation which would hold its own in the struggle with its contemporaries becomes simply the third term 
in a syllogism.” 

Manchester had been agitating the question of a Canal to the sea since 1825. In 1882 the move¬ 
ment finally crystallized, a meeting being held in that year, and a Ship Canal Company organized. 

In a few months $800,000 was subscribed. It took three years to get the necessary Parliamentary 
legislation, but on January 1, 1894, the Canal was opened to traffic, less than twelve years after the 
Company was organized. 

During the first three years after it was in operation 10,000 houses and offices were built, and the 
emptv warehouses and residences filled up. 

In addition to arresting the exodus of their old industries, those which had abandoned the city 
returned, and many new ones were established, including the great electric works of our own George 
Westinghouse, at Trafford Park, a suburb of Manchester. 

[ November 7, 1908 .—The tonnage for 1907, of traffic which passed over the Ship Canal, was 
5,210,759 tons, and the revenue £535,585.] 

We print an abstract from the latest report found in The Marine Review of March 14, 1907. 







From Stereograph. Copyright, 1906, by Underwood & Underwood,"New York. 

THE CORINTHIAN CANAL IN GREECE. 

A remarkable sea-level canal, connecting the Saronic Gulf with the Gulf of Corinth, Greece. The photograph 
was taken from the railroad bridge just as J. P. Morgan’s Yacht “Corsair” was passing through the Canal. 










THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


G9 


“MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.” 

“The report of the Manchester Ship Canal Company for the half year ending December 31, 1906, has 
been issued. The result of the half year’s working of the Ship Canal Department was an increase of 
£24,959 in the receipts, of £4,007 in the expenditure and £20,952 in the profit, as compared with the 
corresponding half of the previous year. It should be noted that the increase of £4,007 in the expendi¬ 
ture is in comparison with a half year during which the sum of £2,377 was expended on the official 
opening of the new dock. 

“The following is a comparison of the traffic for the thirteen years during which the Ship Canal has 
been open: 


Seaborne Traffic. Seaborne Traffic. 


YEAR. 

TONS. 

YEAR. 

TONS. 

1S94. 

686,158 

1901 . . . 

. . 2,684,833 

1895 . 

1,037,443 

1902 . . . 

. . 3,137,343 

1896 . 

1,509,658 

1903 . . . 

3,554,636 

1897 . 

1,700,479 

1904 . . . 

. . 3,618,004 

1898 . 

2,218,005 

1905 . . . 

. . 3,993,110 

1899 . 

1900 . 

2,429,168 

2,734,843 

1906 . . . 

. . 4,441,241 


“The receipts for the year showed an increase of £49,401, and the expenditure of £17,439, including 
a provision of £8,000 for the Irlam accident. The net result was an increase of £31,962 in the working 
profit.” 

The principal docks are equipped with transit sheds of new design, steam, hydraulic and electric 
cranes, and other appliances for giving quick despatch. There is also a grain elevator of the capacity 
of 40,000 tons. The Company’s railways, over 100 miles in all, convey traffic between the various 
loading and discharging berths at the docks and along the Canal, and are connected with all the railway 
systems entering the city at the limit of the yard. The Company began with two trains daily, and is now 
running over 50. The Company was wise in originally securing large tracts of land adjoining the Canal, 
and it has for sale or lease, under proper restrictions, plots of land suitable for the erection of works of all 
kinds, with frontage on the Canal and connection with the principal railways. 

The business interest of Manchester did not invest for dividends, but to protect itself against exces¬ 
sive harbor rates of Liverpool, the cost of extra handling and heavy railroad rates. 

It has seen its industrial decline stopped, and the tide of commerce turned into expanding trade and 
commercial prosperity. This prosperity is shared not alone by Manchester, and all places along the line 
of the Canal, but by a large territory adjacent thereto. 

Manchester is looked upon by the promoters of the Company as a precedent, an inspiration for their 
best effort. 


REGULATION OF RAILROAD RATES. 

Competition is desirable here as in these other cases. Ten years ago there was active competition 
in railway rates. Consolidation and concentration of railway ownership and management has changed 
all this, and competition is now almost wholly a matter of history. Consolidation and concentration of 
control gives the power to enormously increase transportation charges. This power, has, in too many 
instances, been used, and justice to the shipper and consumer has not always been the primary 
consideration. 

Commissioner Prouty of the Interstate Commission, says of conditions today: “However desirable, 
competition in the railway rate is impossible. We have attempted to secure it by law, and have utterly 
failed.” 

Competition in fixing rates being impossible, the Federal government has been compelled to lay 
hold on the rate itself. 










From Stereograph. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. New York. 

SUEZ CANAL, AT PORT SAID, EGYPT. 

















THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


71 


The railroads were given control of and became public highways. They were given extraordinary 
privileges, and were given them because a public duty was to be performed. They were to treat the 
public, from whom they received their privileges, alike, and without discrimination, and were to render 
service for reasonable compensation. 

Forgetful of these public duties, and that these means of transportation were to be managed in the 
interest of those who had given them these privileges, favoritism, discrimination, and rebates grew into 
such proportions that they soon grew to be the rule, rather than the exception. 

In the hands of the railroad authorities it became possible to make or destroy industries or com¬ 
munities. This possibility became an actuality, and as Dr. Shaw very truthfully said: “They have, by 
discrimination, built up twenty monopolies where the tariff has one.’’ In other words, they took advan¬ 
tage of the public and taxed it unfairly, and often excessively. The people would stand the latter—they 
rebelled at the former. Redress was impossible through the ballot, and because of the amount involved 
in individual instances, the machinery of the courts was slow and expensive. The Interstate Commerce 
Commission was created, with supervisory powers. These powers were not sufficient, and finally rate¬ 
making powers were legislated. 

Certain rules of action sprung into existence in railroad management, and became fixed factors in 
their operation, one of these being that the rates are greater at non-competitive points than at com¬ 
peting points. Though there is much refinement and mystery in the making of a rate, with little or any 
scientific basis, it is usually about what the traffic will bear. Traffic at non-competitive points will bear 
more than at competitive points, because the service is needed more, and is therefore valuable. If there 
is competition in a given locality, neither competitor is indispensable and the service of either is less 
valuable, as it is needed less, and less is imposed in the shape of rates. There is the further rule of practice 
that competition at one point puts up the rate at the point where there is more. This is an injustice. 
The application of these rules and the consequent burdens are felt in Southeastern Massachusetts, where 
the New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co. has a practical monopoly. 

Under the title of “Regulation of Railroad Rates” the argument of Col. Josiah H. Benton, Jr., 
counsel for the New York, New Haven & Hartford R.R. Co., before the Massachusetts Railroad Commis¬ 
sioners on petition for reduction in coal rates to Brockton, has been published. Note the following para¬ 
graphs contained therein: 

“ Brockton is not a competitive point and therefore its rates cannot, as this Board has frequentlv 
said in similar cases, be properly compared with the rates of competitive points.” 

“ A reduction of one-third or one-half (from $1.00 to 75 cents or 50 cents) of the coal rate upon the 
coal used in Brockton or in the Brockton group is a sum so small as to have no practical effect upon the 
entire business of the communities for which that coal is brought .” 

Since 1894 the number of important railroads operating in Massachusetts has been reduced from 
seven to three, by control passing to the latter. The railroad systems now controlling the business of 
Massachusetts are the “New York, New Haven & Hartford,” the “New York Central & Hudson 
River” and the “ Boston & Maine.” The former road also controls the important electric street railway 
systems of the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and is rapidly acquiring like dominion of similar 
lines in Massachusetts. 

The relations of these three companies are not such as to encourage the belief that rate war is immi¬ 
nent, no indications of riots are apparent, and the feeling is general that no competition in fact exists, 
but that all New England rates are harmoniously made by one and the same power.* It is quite note¬ 
worthy that upon two of the roads absorbed, viz.: the Fitchburg and the New York & New England, the 


*Since the above article was written, the President of the New Haven Railroad has admitted to Governor Guild, 
bv letter, dated fune 4, 1907, that interests identified with the New Haven system had practically completed arrange¬ 
ments to’acquire control of the Boston & Maine Railroad. In view of the tremendous power over the industries of 
Massachusetts which such a gigantic monopoly will exercise, and the probability that the Boston & Albany system will 
soon be similarly absorbed, Governor Guild has, by special message, requested the Legislature not to adjourn until it 
shall have enacted such legislation as shall assure the best possible protection to Massachusetts where dependent upon 
a single transportation corporation. 

The vital necessity of providing for independent, adequate and economical transportation service by water lines 
becomes strikingly apparent. 







72 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


freight rate per ton-mile averaged very much less than that of the absorbing system. It is evident that 
these three systems have a community of interest in perfect accord , with the tendency to final complete 
amalgamation of all the steam and electric lines in New England. Such an ultimate outcome could be 
made of great benefit to all the people of this section, provided that under proper regulation the benefit 
of possible improvements in service, rates, etc., is exacted by the State authorities. 

It is quite apparent that if Massachusetts citizens and legislators do not put forth a strong effort to hold, 
develop, and expand the industries of the State through the medium of improved methods of cheap transpor¬ 
tation, they can hardly expect such action by New York controlling interests. 

We must look in some other direction if we would have relief. 

JAMES J. HILL ON THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM. 

James J. Hill, the Great Builder of the Northwest, Tells How Transportation of the Ever 

Increasing Freight in This Country Can be Moved by Canals and Waterways—The Rail¬ 
roads Cannot Handle the Business Now, and There Are No New Roads or Capital in 

Sight for the Increase. 

The following interview with James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway, appeared in 
the Boston Globe, April 14, 1907, and is a complete summary of the situation which makes it an absolute 
necessity for the well-being of the entire United States that recourse be immediately had to Canals and 
waterways, as the most practical and economical means to handle the enormous freight tonnage to be 
moved in all parts of the country. 

“The railroad problem is stupendous,” he said. 

This was the preface. He waited as if turning the subject matter over in his mind for continuity’s 
sake. 

“The railroads cannot begin to handle the business. There is no prospect of building new roads, 
for the cost is prohibitive. It would cost a railroad $150,000,000 to get from Harlem to 42nd street in 
New York. One hundred and thirty-five million dollars would be at the rate of $150,000 a mile from 
New York to Chicago for a terminal in New York alone, to say nothing of other terminals and the addi¬ 
tional cost of construction. 

“Now no practical man would accept a contract for furnishing the facilities required, including 
additional equipment and terminal facilities, for less than $75,000 a mile. The terminals now in use by 
the railroads, you must remember, were acquired years ago, when property was comparatively cheap. 
They can now be enlarged and added to only by heavy outlay. But in many cities additional facilities 
do not mean simply a matter of cost, for the necessary area cannot be obtained at any price. 

“ It does not exist within the area where the business must be handled and cannot be obtained unless 
the very business that it is desirable to handle is destroyed to make room for the terminals.” 

“What should be the expenditure on the construction of railroads in this country?” was asked. 

“Five billion, five hundred million dollars,” he said promptly. “There should be a yearly expendi¬ 
ture of $1,100,000,000 for five years. That sum must be spent before the commerce of the country can 
be properly moved. Do you realize what that amount of money means? It is twice the amount of 
the bonded debt of the United States after the close of the Civil War, and it is more than twice the amount 
of the entire currency in circulation in the country, and only a little less than twice the deposits in 
all the savings banks in the United States put together. 

“Unless this money be raised, the business of the country will be prostrated. The business of the 
country is now so badly congested that from every quarter there are cries for relief. Everywhere there 
are freight blockades of enormous proportions, especially at the terminal points. And the situation is 
daily, hourly, becoming worse. It is the greatest business problem that has ever faced the nation.” 

“ The remedy,” he said, “The first step, is to properly understand existing conditions.” 

He reached into a pigeon-hole in his desk and took out a paper covered with figures. 



THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


73 


When Asked Railroad Growth For Ten Years. 


"These figures are compiled," he said, “from the official reports of the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission, and they cover the growth of the railroad business for the last ten years. Let me read them 
to you: 



1895. 

1905. 

INCREASE 

PER CENT. 

Total single-track mileage 

180,657 

218,101 

21 

Locomotives. 

35,699 

48,357 

35 

Passenger cars. 

33,112 

40,713 

23 

Freight cars. 

1,196,119 

1,731,409 

45 

Passenger mileage. 

12,188,446,271 

23,800,149,436 

95 

Freight ton mileage .... 

85,227,515,891 

186,463,109,510 

119 


“You will see,’’ he continued, putting down the paper, “that these figures explain the cause of the 
delay of the traffic movement of the country that threatens to bring our national industries to a standstill. 

“Within the last ten years the volume of railroad business in this country has increased more than 
110 per cent, and the railroads during this time have endeavored to meet it, for the increase in locomotives 
has been 35 per cent, and in freight cars of all classes 45 per cent., and there has been a substitution of 
larger cars for smaller, better methods of loading, and an increase in the weight of locomotives. All 
these things have added greatly to the carrying capacity of the railroads so far as rolling stock is concerned. 

“Moreover, equipment is being increased as rapidly as capital and labor can increase it. The car 
and locomotive works of the country have all the orders they can fill for a year ahead, and there is no 
question that there will be cars and locomotives enough to carry the traffic of the country if the cars 
could be moved. 

A striking part of the situation is that railroad building within a generation has fallen off just as 
the demand upon trackage has increased. Now here are more figures which show that when the demand 
is greatest and the whole country is clamoring for relief, the percentage of increase in mileage today is 
the smallest that it has been in years. 

Again he had recourse to his figures. He read: 



TOTAL 



INC. PER CENT 


MILEAGE. 

INC. INC. 

PER CENT 

PER ANNUM. 

1870 .... 

. . . . 52,898 


\ • 


1880 .... 

. . . . 93,671 

40,773 

77. 

7.7 

1890 .... 

. . . . 163,597 

69,926 

74.6 

7.46 

1904 .... 

. . . . 213,904 

50,307 

30.75 

2.19 

1906 (Est) . . 

. . . . 220,000 

6,250 

2.9 

1.45 


“ The conclusion is easily arrived at,’’ he resumed. “A common carrier has reached its limit when 
it is moving at all times over its system as many cars as can be run upon its tracks with safety, and 
transferred and dispatched from its terminals and junction points without unreasonable delay. 

“ Beyond a certain limit, then, increase of business cannot be handled by increasing cars and engines 
The disparity between the growth of traffic and the additions to railroad mileage, and the extension of 
terminals, shown by new mileage of less than H percent, a year for ten years past, presents and explains 
the real problem. 

“The best judgment of many conservative railroad men in the country is that an immediate addition 
of not less than 5 per cent, per annum to the railroad trackage of the country for, say, five years, should 
be made to relieve the situation and put an end to unreasonable delays in the transaction of business.’’ 
















74 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


Increased Trackage. 

“ And does this demand for increased trackage facilities mean that relief can be obtained by additions 
to equipment and increased efficiency in the operation of railroads?” 

“No additions to equipment and no increased efficiency in operation can take the place of the impera¬ 
tively required new trackage and terminal facilities,” he replied. 

11 The country must have additional tracks and the country must have additional terminal facilities. 
Now, suppose,” he went on, and he gently stroked the desk with his hand, ‘‘suppose that only 25 per 
cent, additional tracks with the necessary terminals and equipments are built in the next five years, and 
without these additions the country cannot escape extreme distress and business depression and cannot 
properly conduct the volume of business now in sight. 

“ But let us see how we shall come out, working on this basis. The total railroad mileage in the 
United States is about 220,000 miles. A 25 per cent, increase, then, would mean the building of 55,000 
miles of new track, much of which would be additional tracks to existing lines; and if five years were 
allowed to the work, it would be necessary to build 11,000 miles of railroad each year. 

‘‘But that would not be all, for one-third more would have to be added to this amount of tracks 
for terminal and passing tracks, making, say, at the end of the five years a total, in round numbers, of 
75,000 miles of track. Most of this additional track would be built where traffic is the heaviest, for double¬ 
tracking existing lines, and it, therefore, would be expensive work. Grades would have to be lowered, 
curvature reduced, highway and other bridges built and expensive terminals created. 

‘‘You can see, then, that I was not much out of the way in the estimate that it would require 
$5,500,000,000 for the proper railroad accommodations of this country in the next five years. In fact, 
I am inclined to the belief that I have underestimated the situation. 

‘‘But let us look at it from another viewpoint,” he continued. ‘‘The average speed of a freight 
train is from 12 to 15 miles an hour, and the average distance traveled by each freight car is about 
25 miles a day. Therefore, the entire freight equipment of the country is employed to the fair limit 
of its capacity but two hours out of the twenty-four. 

‘‘ On single-track lines freight must wait on sidings while passenger trains have the right of way, and 
freight cars stand for days and sometimes weeks in yards, or at transfer points, awaiting their turn.” 

‘‘Now, I am going a little further into the figures,” he said, ‘‘because they show the true situation. 
Our population, for instance, is increasing at the rate of more than 2,000,000 a year, and it will not be 
long before the increase will be 2,500,000. 

“ Nearly all the products used by the people are carried by the railroads a longer or shorter distance. 
The value of farm products doubled in thirty years after 1870, and now it is estimated that their value 
is almost twice as great as it was five years ago. In ten years the output of petroleum has been more than 
doubled. 

“ In ten years the output of pig iron has increased 150 per cent. The value of manufactured products 
of the country rose from $9,372,437,283 in 1890 to $13,039,279,566 in 1900. And to grasp the situation 
in all its details you must realize that every addition to our imports and our exports means just so much 
more work for the carrier systems of the country. 

“ Let us look at the industrial part of it. At the rate of 140 tons to the mile, it would require 2,000,000 
tons of steel rails every year to furnish the 15,000 miles of track required. This is nearly two-thirds of 
the product of all the rolling mills in the United States. It would require the labor of 200,000 men in 
grading, besides track layers, bridge builders and others to complete the work of building this number 
of miles of road 

‘‘The labor for such an undertaking cannot be obtained at any price. Lauoiers cannot now be 
obtained in sufficient numbers to provide for the ordinary extensions and improvements making at 
present. This, then, is the great business problem that confronts the United States.” 

He leaned back in his chair. He pushed the record of figures away from him on the desk. 

‘‘What is your remedy?” was asked. 

He straightened in his chair again. 





THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


75 

“A decentralization of traffic must meet the prohibitory expense attached to the enlargement of terminals 
at many points and the lack of available space which cannot be obtained at any price," he said. “ There 
must be more points for export—more interior markets. The heavy transfers of freight must be kept away 
from the great cities." 

“And how would you bring about this decentralization of traffic?” 

“A fifteen-foot Canal should be constructed from St. Louis to New Orleans, along the Mississippi,” 
he replied. “Such a Canal would go further to relieve the Middle West and Southwest than any other 
work that could be undertaken. 

“On such a Canal a single powerful towboat would carry from 30 to 40 trainloads of freight. 
The transportation of freight by rail costs one-half cent a ton a mile. It could be carried on the Canal on 
steel barges with a powerful towboat at the rate of one mill a ton a mile. 

“ The Canal is the Solution. ” 

“ The Canal is the solution of the transportation problem. Railroad building has declined. That 
is certain. Business is blockaded. That is certain. Some means must be adopted for moving the 
business. The decline in railroad building is not an accident. The investors simply refuse to put their 
money into railroad enterprises which are now under the ban of unpopularity, and under threat by 
individuals and political parties with confiscation or transfer to the State.” 

“REMEDY” IN WATERWAYS. 

President Roosevelt Commends the System—Names Commission to Make an Inquiry—Railroads 

Not Now Able to Do Work. 

Washington, March 16, 1907. 

Complying with petitions presented by numerous commercial organizations of the Mississippi Valley, 
President Roosevelt has decided to appoint an Inland Waterways Commission, whose duty it will be to 
prepare and report a comprehensive plan for the improvement and control of the river systems of the 
United States. Eight public men have been asked to serve on the Commission, and Representative 
Burton of Ohio, chairman of the Rivers and Harbors Committee in the last Congress, is to be chairman 
of the Commission. 

In a letter which he has addressed to each of these persons the President sets out that he is influenced 
in creating the Commission by the broad considerations of national policy; that the railroads are no longer 
able to move crops and manufactures rapidly enough to secure the prompt transaction of the business 
of the nation, and that there appears to be but one complete remedy—the development of a complemen¬ 
tary system of transportation by water. The President’s letter in full is as follows: 

“The White House, 

“ Washington, March 14, 1907. 

“My dear Sir: Numerous commercial organizations of the Mississippi Valley have presented petitions 
asking that I appoint a Commission to prepare and report a comprehensive plan for the improvement 
and control of the river systems of the United States. I have decided to comply with these requests by 
appointing an Inland Waterways Commission, and I have asked the following gentlemen to act upon it. 
I will be much gratified if you will consent to serve: 

“Hon. Theodore E. Burton, chairman; Senator Francis G. Newlands, Senator William Warner, Hon. 
John H. Bankhead, Gen. Alexander MacKenzie, Dr. W. J. McGee, Mr. F. H. Newell, Mr. Gifford Binchot, 
Hon. Herbert Knox Smith. 

“In creating this commission I am influenced by broad considerations of national policy. The control 
of our navigable waterways lies with the Federal government and carries with it corresponding responsi¬ 
bilities and obligations. The energy of our people has hitherto been largely directed toward industrial 
development connected with field and forest and with coal and iron, and some of these sources of material 
and power are already largely depleted; while our inland waterways as a whole have thus far received 



76 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


scant attention. It is becoming clear that our streams should be considered and conserved as great 
natural resources. Works designed to control our waterways have thus far been usually undertaken 
for a single purpose, such as the improvement of navigation, the development of power, the irrigation of 
arid lands, the protection of lowlands from floods, or to supply water for domestic and manufacturing 
purposes. While the rights of the people to these and similar uses of water must be respected, the time 
has come for merging local projects and uses of inland waters in a comprehensive plan designed for the 
benefit of the entire country. Such a plan should consider and include all the uses to which streams 
may be put, and should bring together and co-ordinate the points of view of all users of water. The 
task involved in the full and orderly development and control of the river system of the United States 
is a great one, yet it is certainly not too great for us to approach. The results which it seems to promise 
are even greater. 

11 It is common knowledge that the railroads of the United States are no longer able to move crops and 
manufactures rapidly enough to secure the prompt transaction of the business of the nation, and there is 
small prospect of immediate relief. Representative railroad men point out that the products of the 
northern interior States have doubled in ten years, while the railroad facilities have increased but one- 
eighth, and there is reason to doubt whether any development of the railroads possible in the near future 
will suffice to keep transportation abreast of production. There appears to be but one complete remedy 
—the development of a complementary system of transportation by water. The present congestion 
affects chiefly the people of the Mississippi Valley, and they demand relief. When congestion of which 
they complain is relieved the whole nation will share the good results. 

“While rivers are natural resources of the first rank,they are also liable to become destructive agencies, 
endangering life and property; and some of our most notable engineering enterprises have grown out of 
efforts to control them. It was computed by Generals Humphreys and Abbott, half a century ago, that 
the Mississippi alone sweeps into its lower reaches and the Gulf 400,000,000 tons of floating sediment each 
year (about twice the amount of material to be excavated in opening the Panama Canal), besides an 
enormous but unmeasured amount of earth—salts and soil matter carried in solution. This vast load 
not only causes its channels to clog and flood the lowlands of the river, but renders the flow capricious 
and difficult to control. Furthermore, the greater part of the sediment and soil matter is composed of 
the most fertile material of the fields and pastures drained by the smaller and larger tributaries. Any 
plan for utilizing our inland waterways should consider floods and their control by forests and other 
means; the protection of bottom lands from injury by overflows, and uplands from loss of soil wash; the 
physics of sediment, charged waters and the physical or other ways of purifying them; the construction 
of dams and locks, not only to facilitate navigation but to control the character and movement of the 
waters; and should look to the full use and control of our running waters and the complete artificialization 
of our waterways for the benefit of our people as a whole. 

“It is not possible properly to frame so large a plan as this for the control of our rivers without taking 
account of the orderly development of other natural resources. Therefore I ask that the Inland Water¬ 
ways Commission shall consider the relations of the streams to the use of all the great permanent natural 
resources and their conservation for the making and maintenance of prosperous homes. 

“Anyplan for utilizing our inland waterways, to be feasible, should recognize the means for executing 
it already in existence, both in the federal departments of war, interior, agriculture and commerce and 
labor, and in the States and their subdivisions; and it must not involve unduly burdensome expenditures 
from the national treasury. The cost will necessarily be large in proportion to the magnitude of the 
benefits to be conferred, but it will be small in comparison with the SI7,000,000,000 of capital now invested 
in steam railways in the United States—an amount that would have seemed enormous and incredible 
half a century ago. Yet the investment has been a constant source of profit to the people, and without 
it our industrial progress would have been impossible. 

“The questions which will come before the Inland Waterways Commission must necessarily relate to 
every part of the United States and affect every interest within its borders. Its plans should be con¬ 
sidered in the light of the widest knowledge of the country and its people, and from the most diverse points 
of view. Accordingly, when its work is sufficiently advanced I shall add to the Commission certain con¬ 
sulting members, with whom I shall ask that its recommendations shall be fully discussed before they are 
submitted to me. The reports of the Commission should include both a general statement of the problem 
and recommendations as to the manner and means of attacking it. 

“Sincerely yours, 


THEODORE ROOSEVELT.” 



CANAL STATISTICS 


FOREIGN SHIP CANALS. 

Length, 

Miles. 

Depth, 

Feet. 

Bottom Width, 
Feet. 

Cost. 

Suez—Mediterranean and Red seas. 

90 

31 

108 

$100,000,000 

Cronstadt—St Petersburg. 

16 

204 


10 000 000 

Corinth—Corinth and Aigina gulfs. 

4 

26* 

72 

5,000,000 

Manchester Ship—Manchester and Liverpool. 

35A 

26 

120 

75,000,000 

Kaiser Wilhelm ( Kiel )—Baltic and North seas. 

61 

294 

72 

40.000,000 

Elbe and Trave. 

41 

10 

72 

6,000,000 


Statement showing the cost and date of construction, length, number of locks, and navigable depth of the principal canals of the 
United States used for commercial purposes. 


CANALS. 

Cost of 

Construction.* 

When 

Com¬ 

pleted. 

Length, 

Miles. 

No. of 
Locks. 

Depth 

Feet.t 

LOCATION. 

Albemarle and Chesapeake. 

$1,641,363 

1860 

44 

1 

7\ 

Norfolk, Va., to Currituck Sound, N. C. 

Augusta. 

1.500,000 

1847 

9 


11 

Savannah River, Ga., to Augusta, Ga. 

Black River. 

3,581,954 

1849 

35 

109 

4 

Rome, N. Y., to Lvons Falls, N. Y. 

Cayuga and Seneca. 

2,232,632 

1839 

25 

11 

7 

Montezuma, N. Y., to Cavuga and Seneca Lakes, N. Y. 

Champlain. 

4,044,000 

1822 

81 

32 

6 

Whitehall, N. Y., to West Troy, N. Y. 

Chesapeake and Delaware. 

3,730,230 

1829 

14 

3 

<) 

Chesapeake City, Md., to Delaware City, Del. 

Chesapeake and Ohio. 

1 1,290,327 

1850 

184 

73 

6 

Cumberland, Md., to Washington, D. C. 

Company’s. 

90,000 

1847 

22 

1 

6 

Mississippi River, La., to Bayou Black, La. 

Delaware and Raritan. 

4,888,749 

1838 

66 

14 

7 

New Brunswick, N. J., to Trenton, N. J. 

Delaware Division. 

2,433,350 

1830 

60 

33 

6 

Easton, Pa., to Bristol, Pa. 

Des Moines Rapids. 

4,582,009 

1877 

71 

3 

5 

At Des Moines Rapids, Mississippi River. 

Dismal Swamp. 

2,800,000 

1822 

22 

7 

6 

Connects Chesapeake Bay with Albemarle Sound. 

Erie. 

52,540,800 

1826 

387 

72 

7 

Albany, N. Y., to Buffalo, N. Y. 

Fairfield. 



4* 

None. 


Alligator River, to Lake Mattimuskeet, N. C. 

Galveston and Brazos. 

340,000 

1851 

38 


3* 

Galveston, Tex., to Brazos River, Tex. 

Hocking. 

975,481 

1843 

42 

26 

4 

Carroll, 0., to Nelsonville, O. 

Illinois and Michigan. 

7,357,787 

1848 

102 

15 

6 

Chicago, Ill., to La Salle, Ill. 

Illinois and Mississippi. 

568,643 

1895 

4* 

<1 

o 

7 

Around lower rapids of Rock Riv., Ill. Connects with Miss. R. 

Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. . 

4,455,000 

1821 

108 

57 

6 

Coalport, Pa., to Easton, Pa. 

Louisville and Portland. 

5,578,631 

1872 

2* 

2 


At Falls of Ohio River, Louisville, Ky. 

Miami and Erie. 

8,062,680 

1835 

274 

93 

5* 

Cincinnati, 0., to Toledo, O. 

Morris. 

6,000,000 

1836 

103 

33 

5 

Easton, Pa., to (ersey City, N. [. 

Muscle Shoals and Elk R. Shoals 

3,156,919 

1889 

16 

1 1 

6 

Big Muscle Shoals, Tenn., to Elk River Shoals, Tenn. 

Newberne and Beaufort. 



3 

None. 


Clubfoot Creek, to Harlow Creek, N. C. 

Ogeechee. 

407,810 

1840 

16 

5 

Q 

o 

Savannah River, Ga., to Ogeechee River, Ga. 

Ohio. 

4,695,204 

1835 

317 

150 

4 

Cleveland, 0., to Portsmouth, 0. 



1828 

38 

18 

7 

Oswego, N. Y., to Syracuse, N. Y. 

Pennsylvania. 

7,731,750 

1839 

193 

71 

6 

Columbia, Northumberland, Wilkesbarre, Huntington, Pa. 

Portage Lake and Lake Superior. 

528,892 

1873 

25 

None. 

15 

From Keweenaw Bay to Lake Superior. 

Port Arthur . 


1899 

7 


26 

Port Arthur, Tex., to Gulf of Mexico. 

Santa Fe . 

70,000 

1880 

10 


5 

Waldo, Fla., to Melrose, Fla. 

Sault Ste. Marie ( ship canal ). . . . 

4,000,000 

1895 

3 

2 

18 

Connects Lakes Superior and Huron at St. Mary’s River. 

Schuylkill Navigation Company.. 

12,461,600 

1826 

108 

71 

6* 

Mill Creek, Pa., to Philadelphia, Pa. 

Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan 

99,661 

1881 

H 

None. 

15 

Between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. 

St. Marv’s Falls . 

7,909,667 

1896 

i J 

1 

21 

Connects Lakes Superior and Huron at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. 

Susquehanna and Tidewater . 

4,931,345 

1840 

45 

32 


Columbia, Pa., to Havre de Grace, Md. 

Walhonding . 

607,269 

1843 

25 

11 

4 

Rochester, 0., to Roscoe, 0. 

Welland (ship canal) . 

23,796,353 

1833 

26J 

25 

14 

Connects Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. 


*And improvements. -(-Navigable depth. 

The Harlem River Ship Canal, connecting the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, by way of Spuyten Duyvil Creek and 
Harlem River, was opened for traffic on June 17, 1895, and cost about $2,700,000. N. Y. World Almanac, 1907. 









































































THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


78 


An Act to Incorporate the New York, Brockton and Boston 
Canal and Transportation Company. 

[Chapter 532, Acts of 1906.] 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 

Section 1 . —John J. Whipple, Herbert E. Guy, Bradford E. Jones, Wallace C. Flagg, Elmer C. Packard, George 
B. French, Daniel W. Field, Herbert L. Tinkham, George Clarence Holmes, Benjamin Buffington, George T. Durfee, 
Richard E. Warner, Thomas A. Norris, Fred P. Richmond, Kenneth McLeod, George A. Carter, Alva P. Poole, Samuel 
J. Gruver, Elliot L. Bonney, Rufus E. Tilton, George A. Wheeler, Embert Howard, Horatio E. Williams, Charles 
Howard, George E. Keith, Nathaniel R. Packard, Frank E. White, William Rapp, James G. Wilde, Portus B. Hancock, 
Howard T. Marshall, Loring W. Puffer, Emery M. Low, Henry F. Borden, Charles O. Emerson, Luke W. Reynolds, 
Henry J. LeLacheur, William S. Morey, Robert Cook, John E. Holland, Ellis S. LeLacheur, Charles L. Sargent, Edward 
B. Mellen, Maynard A. Davis, James A. Roarty, Martin Dolan, Ellery C. Dean, Moses A. Packard, John S. Kent, David 
A. Alden, William L. Douglas, George Hawley, Charles B. Whitcomb, James W. Rollins, Jr., William H. Lewis, Hiram 
E. Wardwell, Loyed E. Chamberlain, Lewis M. Haupt, Baalis Sanford, Thomas B. Inness, Michael D. Long, Frank E. 
Shaw, Robert T. Davis, A. Homer Skinner, Sumner H. Hancock, Charles A. Browne, Joseph Pratt, Roswell R. Skillings, 
Lorenzo B. Terry, Albert Barrows, Elmer H. Fletcher, Jabez W. Frederick, their associates and successors, are hereby 
made a corporation by the name of the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company, and as 
such shall have perpetual succession, and by that name may sue and be sued, and may purchase, receive, hold and 
convey real and personal estate, and the same retain to themselves, their successors and assigns, so far as may be nec¬ 
essary for the transaction of their business; with all the privileges, and subject to all the duties, restrictions and liabilities 
set forth in all general laws now or hereafter in force relating to railroad corporations, so far as they are applicable, 
except as otherwise provided herein. 

Section 2.—The capital stock of said corporation shall be fifteen million dollars, divided into shares of one hundred 
dollars each, and the corporation may issue coupon or registered bonds to an amount not exceeding the authorized 
capital stock of the corporation actually paid in at the time, and may mortgage or pledge as security for the payment 
of such bonds a part or all of its canal equipment or franchise then owned or thereafter to be acquired, or a part or all 
of its property, real or personal. All issues of stock and bonds under the provisions of this act shall be subject to the 
approval of the board of railroad commissioners in the manner provided in chapter one hundred and nine of the Revised 
Laws and in acts in addition thereto and in amendment thereof. 

Section 3.—Said canal company may locate, construct, maintain and operate a ship canal beginning at some con¬ 
venient point on Narragansett bay or Taunton river, harbor or an estuary thereof, and extending across the state of 
Massachusetts to an estuary, river or harbor of Massachusetts bay or Cape Cod bay on or near the survey of nineteen 
hundred and one from Taunton river to Fore river, Weymouth; may locate, construct and maintain all such wharves, 
basins, docks, gates, locks and other structures and works as may be necessary for the convenient use of said canal, 
together with the highways provided for by this act; and may maintain and operate steam and other vessels or power 
conveyances for transportation by water, and steam tugs, or may use any other means or methods for assisting vessels 
in their approach to and passage through and from the canal. The canal when constructed shall have a depth of not 
less than twenty-five feet at mean high tide and a width of not less than one hundred and twenty feet at the bottom, 
with suitable slopes, and with a surface width of not less than two hundred feet, and any part of said canal may be 
constructed of wood, stone or other suitable material and, if so constructed, and with vertical sides shall have a uni¬ 
form width of one hundred and fifty feet. All materials excavated from tide waters shall be disposed of to the satis¬ 
faction of the Massachusetts harbor and land commissioners, and the construction of the approach from deep water to 
either end of the canal shall be subject to their supervision. 

Section 4.—Said canal company may lay out and have the location of its canal not exceeding seven hundred feet 
in width, and shall, within two years after the payment of the money referred to in section twenty-three, file with the 
harbor and land commissioners a plan of the proposed location and a plan of the proposed construction thereof. The 
board of harbor and land commissioners shall, after such notice as they shall deem sufficient, and after hearing the 
parties interested, and within six months after the filing of said plans, approve or disapprove said plan of the proposed 
location and the plan for the construction, or may require such modification of such plans as said commissioners may 
deem the public interest to require. The plans as finally approved by the said board shall be returned to the said 
company, and shall be accepted or rejected by the company within six months after such return. If accepted, notice in 
writing of the acceptance shall be sent to the said board, and the plans shall be deemed to be the plans of the location 
and construction of the said canal, and said company shall be authorized to construct its canal in accordance therewith. 
Said company shall thereupon file the location of said canal in the registry of deeds for the counties of Norfolk, Ply¬ 
mouth and Bristol, defining the courses, distances and boundaries thereof, in the manner provided for filing railroad 
locations. 




THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


79 


Section 5. —Said canal company shall pay all damages occasioned to the Old Colony Railroad Company and to any 
street railway company whose railway is crossed hv the canal, by laying out and making said canal or by taking land 
or materials therefor, or by any change required under this act of the road of said railroad company; and such damages, 
on the application of either party, shall be estimated by the county commissioners for the county within which the land 
taken lies or the damage was occasioned, in the manner and subject to the rules of law provided for determining the 
damages for taking land in laying out railroads. Either party dissatisfied with the estimate of the county commis¬ 
sioners may, at any time within one year after it is completed and returned, apply by petition to the superior court 
tor the county within which the land taken lies or the damage was occasioned for a jury to assess the damages, and like 
proceedings shall be had thereon as in proceedings for the recovery of damages for laying out railroads. 

Section <>. — The said canal company shall pay all damages occasioned by laying out, making and maintaining its 
canal, or by taking any land or materials therefor which may be necessary to comply with the plans and specifications 
provided for in sections four and eight of this act; and such damages shall, on application of either party, be estimated 
by the county commissioners of the county in which the damage is done, in the manner provided in the case of the lay¬ 
ing out, making and maintaining of railroads. Either party dissatisfied with the estimate of the county commissioners 
may at any time within one year after their award has been made apply for a jury to assess the damages. The pro¬ 
ceedings thereon shall be the same as for the recovery of damages for land taken by railroad companies. 

Section 7.—The canal company, within one month after the approval of its plans by the board of harbor and land 
commissioners, may apply to the boards of railroad commissioners and of harbor and land commissioners, who for the 
purposes hereinafter stated are constituted a joint board, to determine at what point or points the railroad of the Old 
Colony Railroad Company and any street railway company whose railway is crossed by the canal shall cross said canal 
by a drawbridge or bridges, or by a tunnel or tunnels constructed under said canal, and to determine the points where 
and methods by which public ways shall cross the canal. Said joint hoard thereupon, after notice to the Old Colony 
Railroad Company and to all other parties interested, which notice shall be given in such form as said joint board shall 
direct, shall determine said questions, and the decision of a majority of said joint hoard shall be final. Said canal com¬ 
pany shall construct its canal with such structures and appliances for its protection and use as said joint board may 
order, together with such bridge or bridges, tunnel or tunnels, ferries, and changes of highways, under the supervision 
of said joint board, as shall be in accordance with plans approved by them and in conformity with such orders as they 
may make; and the supreme judicial court or any justice thereof in term time or in vacation shall have jurisdiction in 
equity to enforce such orders. 

Section S.—The board of railroad commissioners, after due notice to all parties interested and after hearing all 
who shall appear, shall determine and prescribe in writing the time when and the manner in which the Old Colony Rail¬ 
road Company and any street railway company whose railway is crossed by the canal, shall alter its location so as to 
cross said canal at such point or points as may be determined upon by the joint board hereinbefore provided; and in 
making such alterations said railroad corporation shall have all the powers and privileges and shall be subject to all 
the duties, restrictions and liabilities set forth in all general laws relating to railroads, except that the damages of land 
owners shall be assessed only against, and shall be paid by, said canal company, as in the case of land taken for rail¬ 
road purposes. The canal company may thereupon proceed to build the railroads or railways upon the new locations, 
and may complete the same in such manner as may be prescribed by the railroad commissioners, and to their satis¬ 
faction, in case the parties do not agree upon the same; and shall pay all damages caused by the construction of said 
railroads or railways upon such new locations, and shall be liable for such damages, as in case of the construction of 
railroads. Until the completion of the railroads or railways upon the new locations, said canal company shall not enter 
upon the old location of said railroad except for making surveys or by consent of the said railroad or railway companies, 
or of the railroad commissioners. Damages occasioned to the said railroad or to any street railway company by its 
compliance with the requirements of this act may be recovered by it of the canal company, in the manner provided by 
law for the recovery of damages caused by the location and construction of railroads. 

Section 9.—Upon the completion and acceptance by the board of railroad commissioners of the newly constructed 
railroad or railway and bridge or bridges, tunnel or tunnels, as above provided, the title of said railroad company to 
the land covered by the old, but not covered by the new, locations of said railroad, so far as the same included within 
the location made by said canal company, shall vest in and become the property of said canal company. 

Section 10.—'The said railroad and railway companies and any street railway company whose railway is crossed bv 
the canal, upon the completion and acceptance by the board of railroad commissioners of the newly constructed railroad 
and bridge or bridges, tunnel or tunnels, as above provided, may at its option take such iron and other materials as may 
remain upon that part of the line of said railroad which is to be given up, and shall allow or pay to the said canal com¬ 
pany the value thereof, such value to be determined by the county commissioners of the county in which the property 
was situated in case the parties do not agree upon the same. 

Section 11.—The canal company shall build, maintain and keep in repair a bridge or bridges across said canal or a 
tunnel or tunnels under the same, suitable for the passing of railroad and highway traffic, as said joint board shall 
determine, which bridge or bridges shall have a suitable draw or draws for the passage of vessels, and shall be con- 



80 


THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


structed to the approval, and shall be maintained under the supervision, of the board of railroad commissioners. In 
case of injury to or destruction of any railroad bridge over the canal, the railroad company may repair or rebuild it, 
and may recover the reasonable expense thereof of the canal company in an action of contract, unless such injury or 
destruction was caused by the fault of the railroad company, in which case the expense shall be borne by the railroad 
company. 

Section 12.—The Old Colony Railroad Company shall appoint a superintendent and all necessary assistants for 
every drawbridge used for the purpose of its lines, over said canal: provided, that such appointments shall be approved 
in writing by the board of railroad commissioners before they take effect. Said superintendent shall have full and 
absolute control of the drawbridge and ferries under his charge, subject to such rules and regulations as may from time 
to time be made or approved by the railroad commissioners. 

Section 13.—The Old Colony Railroad Company shall have its location, not exceeding five rods in width, upon any 
land owned or located upon said canal company up to the bridge where it crosses the canal, on each side thereof: pro¬ 
vided, that all reasonable use of such location by the canal company for the purpose of operating its canal, and under 
the direction of the board of railroad commissioners, shall be permitted by the railroad company without the payment 
of rent to the railroad company. 

Section 14.—Whoever unnecessarily opens or obstructs any draw without the consent of the superintendent, or 
without such consent makes fast or moors any scow, raft or other vessel to a bridge to within wake of the draw, or 
neglects or refuses, upon request, to unfasten or unmoor such vessel, shall be fined not less than three dollars nor more 
than fifty dollars. 

Section 15.—Whoever wilfully injures or damages any bridge, wharf or pier belonging to the canal company, or 
wilfully disturbs or hinders the superintendent in the discharge of his duties, shall forfeit to said canal company for 
each offence a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars, and be further liable in damages to said canal company. 

Section 16.—The provisions relating to drawbridges contained in sections one hundred and seventy to one hundred 
and seventy-seven, inclusive, of chapter one hundred and eleven of the Revised Laws shall extend to any bridges con¬ 
structed or maintained by said canal company under the provisions of this act, so far as they may be applicable, except 
that said drawbridges may be kept open at all times except when required to be closed for the actual passage of trains, 
and except that a railroad train shall be allowed five minutes to cross said draw instead of fifteen minutes, as provided 
in section one hundred and seventy-two of said chapter. The same penalties and forfeitures provided in section one 
hundred and seventy-six of said chapter shall also be in force, and may be recovered of the Old Colony Railroad Com¬ 
pany or of any engineer or any superintendent of said bridge in like manner as therein provided in case of the violation 
of any provision of section one hundred and seventy-three or one hundred and seventy-five of said chapter. 

Section 17.—Said canal company may establish for its sole benefit, but without discrimination, favoritism or 
rebating, a toll upon all vessels or water craft of whatever description, using its canal, at such rates as the directors 
thereof may determine, and may from time to time regulate such use in all respects as said directors may determine. 
Said canal company shall also furnish towage through the canal for all vessels or water craft which require it, for which 
service it may establish for its sole benefit, but without discrimination, favoritism or rebating, a toll at such rates as 
the directors may determine. If the said company shall be guilty of any act of discrimination, favoritism or rebating 
in respect to the tolls hereby authorized to be charged by it, or in respect of any service rendered by it, it shall be sub¬ 
ject to a penalty of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars for each offence. 

Section 18.—Whoever fraudulently evades or attempts to evade the payment of any toll lawfully established 
under this act, either by misrepresenting the register or draught of any vessel, or otherwise, shall be fined not less than 
fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, and all such fines shall be paid over to the canal company. 

Section 19.—To compensate the county commissioners for services rendered under this act, and to defray their 
expenses, the canal company shall pay each of said commissioners the sum of five dollars a day for the time actually 
spent in the discharge of his duties: provided, that said canal company shall not be required to pay any of said commis¬ 
sioners for more than fifty days service in one year. 

Section 20.—Whoever wilfully or maliciously obstructs the passing of any vessel or steam tug or other water craft 
in said canal, or obstructs the approaches to said canal within two thousand feet of either extremity thereof, or in any 
way injures said canal or its banks, breakwaters, docks, wharves, locks, tunnels, ferries, ferry boats, slips, gates or 
other structures or works, or anything appertaining thereto, or any materials or implements for the construction or 
use thereof, or aids or abets in such trespass, shall forfeit to the use of said canal company for such offence treble the 
amount of damages proved to have been sustained thereby, to be recovered in an action of tort in the name of said 
company; and may further be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for a term not 
exceeding one year. 

Section 21.—Said canal company shall pay to the secretary of the Commonwealth, on receiving its certificate of 
incorporation,the sum of fifty dollars; and shall also pay to the treasurer of the Commonwealth such sums of moneyas 
shall be fixed by the governor and council as compensation for the services and expenses of the boards of railroad com¬ 
missioners and of the harbor and land commissioners for performing the duties imposed on them as a joint board under 
the provisions of this act. Said allowance for expenses shall include the compensation for such expert engineers as 
may be employed by said joint board. 




THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL. 


SI 


Section 22.—Any moneys expended by the board of harbor and land commissioners under chapter one hundred 
and four of the resolves of the year nineteen hundred and one, not exceeding, however, the sum of ten thousand dollars, 
shall be refunded to the Commonwealth by the grantees of this charter at any time within one year after the passage 
of this act; and if said company fails to comply with the requirements of this section, this charter may be declared 
void in the manner provided in the following section. The said sum may be reckoned by the company as a part of its 
capital stock, as if it had been paid in as such. 

Section 23.—Within one year after the receipt, by the joint board, of the written acceptance of the plans, as pro¬ 
vided in section four, the said company shall begin the construction of said canal and shall complete the same within 
ten years after the entry for that purpose; but the company shall not begin said construction until one million dollars 
of its capital stock have been subscribed and five hundred thousand dollars'thereof paid in cash to the treasurer of the 
corporation, nor until a deposit of two hundred thousand dollars in cash or United States government bonds, par value, 
has been made with the treasurer of the Commonwealth. The said deposit shall be made, and shall be held by the 
treasurer of the Commonwealth as security for the faithful performance of the obligations imposed by this act, and for 
the payment of all damages occasioned by the laying out, construction and maintenance of the said canal, or by taking 
any land or material therefor, and also of all claims for labor performed or furnished in the construction of said canal; 
which sum shall remain with the treasurer until such time as the company shall have actually received into its treasury 
and expended the sum of fifteen million dollars in the construction of said canal, and shall have produced proof satis¬ 
factory to the board of railroad commissioners that it has settled all damages incurred or to be incurred in the location 
and construction of said canal. And unless such amount has been subscribed and such amount paid in and such deposit 
made within the time first mentioned in this section, this charter may be declared void by the supreme judicial court on 
the application of five citizens of the Commonwealth. 

Section 24.—Said canal company shall, before entering upon, removing, altering or otherwise interfering with any 
highway crossing the proposed line of said canal, give to each of the cities and towns traversed by the canal a bond 
with sureties satisfactory to the mayor and aldermen and the selectmen of such cities and towns respectively. The 
penal sum of each of said bonds shall not exceed fifty thousand dollars, and the bonds shall be conditioned to save the 
said cities and towns, respectively, harmless from all loss and expense occasioned by the removal or alteration of or 
interference with said highways by reason of the construction of said canal. Whenever the mayor of any city or the 
selectmen of any town and the canal company do not agree upon the amount of the bond, it shall be referred to the 
county commissioners of the county in which the city or town is situated, whose decision shall be final. 

Section 25.—If said company fails to comply with the requirements of sections twenty-three or twenty-four and 
this charter shall be declared void, as provided in section twenty-four, all buildings, machinery and personal property 
of said company situated on said canal shall become the property of the Commonwealth, and the location of the canal 
shall become the property of the cities and towns in which it is located. 

Section 26.—The Commonwealth or the United States may purchase of the New York, Brockton and Boston 
Canal and Transportation Company its canal and all its franchise, property, rights and privileges by paying therefor 
such sum as will reimburse to it the amount of the capital paid in, with a net profit thereon of ten per cent, a year from 
the time of the payment thereof by the stockholders of said company to the time of purchase, deducting from the 
purchase price the amount of any dividends received by the stockholders prior to the time of the purchase: provided, 
that no such purchase shall be made before the completion of the canal unless the purchaser agrees to complete the 
canal under the provisions of this act. 

Section 27.—So far as to authorize the organization of said canal company, the preparation and filing of the plan 
of the proposed location, and the submission of this act for acceptance by the voters of the cities and towns through 
which said location extends, this act shall take effect upon its passage, but it shall not further take effect unless accepted 
as provided in the next section. 

Section 28.—This act shall be submitted for acceptance at the next state election after the filing of the plan of the 
proposed location, as provided in section four of the act, to the voters of the cities and towns through which said loca¬ 
tion extends. The vote shall be in answer to the question, “Shall an act passed in the year 1906, entitled ‘An Act to 
incorporate the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company,’ be accepted?” and this act shall 
not further take effect unless accepted by a majority of the voters voting thereon .—Approved June 28, 1906. 

[Chap. 554.] 

AN ACT TO EXTEND THE TIME WITHIN WHICH THE NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL 
AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANY SHALL REFUND TO THE COMMONWEALTH CERTAIN MONEY 
EXPENDED BY THE BOARD OF HARBOR AND LAND COMMISSIONERS. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows : 

Section 1.—The time within which, by the provisions of section twenty-two of chapter five hundred and thirty- 
two of the acts of the vear nineteen hundred and six, the New York, Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation 
Company was required to refund to the Commonwealth certain moneys expended by the board of harbor and land 
commissioners under chapter one hundred and four of the resolves of the year nineteen hundred and one, is hereby 
extended so that said moneys shall be so refunded at any time within one year after the passage of this act. 

Section 2.—This act shall take effect upon its passage .—Approved June 22, 1907. 



S2 


THE NEW YORK. BROCKTON AXD BOSTON CANAL. 


[Chap. 472.] 

AX ACT TO EXTEND THE TIME WITHIN WHICH THE NEW YORK. BROCKTON AND BOSTON CANAL 
AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANY SHALL REFUND TO THE COMMONWEALTH CERTAIN MONEY 
EXPENDED BY THE BOARD OF HARBOR AND LAND COMMISSIONERS. 

Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 

Section 1 . —The time within which, by the provisions of section twenty-two of chapter five hundred and thirty-tw 
of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and six. as amended by chapter five hundred and fifty-four of the acts of the 
year nineteen hundred and seven, the New York. Brockton and Boston Canal and Transportation Company is required 
to refund to the Commonwealth certain moneys expended by the board of harbor and land commissioners under chapte 
one hundred and four of the resolves of the year nineteen hundred and one. is hereby extended so that said moneys 
shall so be refunded within two years after the passage of this act. 

Section 2.—This act shall take effect upon its passage .—Approved May 1, 1908. 

















































Addendum, October 31, 1908, to article: 

“WHY THE OLD CAPE COD CANAL HAS NEVER BEEN BUILT.” 

Spasmodic activity at intervals within the past two years on the part of the Company controlling 
the charter which empowers the construction of a Canal from Buzzards Bay to Barnstable Bay—and 
known as the Cape Cod Canal—has led many to believe that its operation would be but a matter of 
a few months. But hope has been turned into disappointment and the project seems as impossible 
of realization as heretofore. The history of the efforts to secure relief in this direction is brought down 
to date in the following recorded events. 

On March 17, 1905, all the leading New England papers contained the following Associated Press 
report: 

“New York, March 16, 1905. Announcement was made here by the officers of the Boston, Cape 
Cod and New York Canal Company, that they have completed the financing of their enterprise, including 
the depositing of $200,000 with the State Treasurer of Massachusetts to provide for the purchase of 
the right of way for the Canal. 

“The Company is empowered to build a Canal for the 7^ miles from the shore line of Buzzards Bay 
to the shore line of Massachusetts Bay, together with miles of approaches. 

“Three years’ time and $12,000,000 will be required to complete the work.” 

On December 18, 1906, it was announced in the New York Tribune that “The project of cutting 
a Ship Canal across Cape Cod, which has been discussed for many years and attempts to realize wdiich 
have at various times been made is now soon to be carried through. There is in existence a Massachu¬ 
setts corporation styled the Boston, Cape Cod and New York Canal Company, the charter of which is 
owned by Dewitt C. Flanagan, of the brewing firm of Flanagan, Nay & Co. The Canal Company has an 
authorized capitalization of $6,000,000 stock, and $6,000,000 bonds. A controlling interest in it has re¬ 
cently been acquired by August Belmont & Co., of this city, and some of their associates, and plans for 
beginning actual work on the Canal are now under consideration by them. 

“The Canal is to extend from Buzzards Bay, on the Atlantic side of the Cape, to Sandwich, on the 
Massachusetts Bay side,- a distance of about 8 miles. Much of the right of way has been secured, 
and surveys made months ago. The Belmont interests are working out also the financial plan, which 
contemplates either the increasing of the capital stock of the Company to at least $10,000,000 or the 
formation of a new r company, with at least $10,000,000 capital stock, to take over the present Corporation. 

“One of the chief obstacles in the past to the building of the Canal has been the opposition of the 
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co., but that opposition has now been withdrawn. 
Although the Canal Company’s franchise empowers it to build a Canal, the route decided upon will make 
it necessary to change the line of the New Haven’s Old Colony Branch near Buzzards Bay, and it will 
also be necessary to build a costly breakwater at Sandwich, on Barnstable Bay, where no adequate 
harbor exists. 

“William Barclay Parsons, who is to be in charge of the construction work, last week appeared 
with Moorfield Storey, the well knowrn Boston lawyer, and Samuel Untermeyer, representing Mr. 
Flanagan, who still holds an interest in the Company, before the Massachusetts State Railroad Com¬ 
mission and State Harbor and Land Board, and applied for the consent of these two bodies for the 
building of the Canal. 

“Mr. Parsons said yesterday, that .... ‘on the Buzzards Bay side the tide rose eight or nine 
feet, and on the Massachusetts Bay side only four or five feet. As the movements of the tide in the two 
bodies of water were not synchronous, there would be a current at all times throtigh the Canal. It was 
not planned to build up any locks,’ he added. 

t 

“It is expected that the canal will be opened for traffic within two and a half years.” 

Under the same date the Boston Transcript contained the following paragraph in an editorial on 
the matter: 


“A year ago last spring the officers of the Company announced that they had completed the financing 
of the enterprise, including the depositing of $200,000 with the State Treasurer of Massachusetts. The 
estimates at that time were that three years’ time and $12,000,000 would be required to complete the 
work. The estimates of Belmont & Co. reduce those figures by two millions of capital and a half year 
of time. The new proposition has a business ring, and it appears that some of the previous objectors 
to the enterprise, foremost among them the New York, New Haven & Hartford Road, have come to 
see their interests in a different light and will assist it instead of further challenging it.” 

April 5, 1907, it was announced in the press that ‘‘The bid of the Cape Cod Canal Construction 
Company to construct the canal for $11,990,000 has been accepted by the Boston, Cape Cod and New 
York Canal Company. The Canal proper will be 8 miles long, extending from Buzzards Bay to 
Barnstable, while the necessary approaches on either end will be 4 miles each. 

‘‘William Barclay Parsons of New York, engineer of the New York subway, is the engineer who has 
drawn the plans for the Cape Cod Canal, and will have charge of the engineering work, while Contractor 
McDonald, who built the New York Subway, will have direction of the Canal’s construction. Both are 
prominent officers of the Cape Cod Canal Construction Company, as is August Belmont. 

‘‘They are understood to be the same people who compose the Boston, Cape Cod and New York 
Canal Company. 

‘‘The Company that offers to undertake the work of construction has taken the name of the Cape 
Cod Canal Construction Company. It was organized under the laws of the State of Maine. 

‘‘Under the terms of the contract, the Construction Company agrees to take in payment for build¬ 
ing the Canal, $5,990,000 worth of stock of the Canal Company and $6,000,000 worth of its bonds. 

“ ‘If we are not hindered by any delays, which we do not now anticipate, about the middle of May 
will see a start made,’ says one of the promoters. ‘Then it will be hustle until the finish. We are allow¬ 
ing about two years for the actual digging and grading and rough work necessitated. 

“ ‘Work on the minor details will be carried on, also, by the skilled workmen during the same time. As 
far as we now plan,the first of the year 1910 ought to see the Canal almost, if not practically, completed.’ ” 

•Notwithstanding all the above announcements, it is a matter of fact that the only actual physical 
work which has been performed was that done in August, 1907, when a limited quantity of sand was 
loaded upon flat cars in close proximity to the car manufacturing plant of the Keith Manufacturing 
Company at Sagamore, Mass., which was required and made use of for filling, in extending its plant for 
setting up car bodies for the exclusive use of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. 

The Boston Herald of June 28, 1908, printed a quite lengthy article sent from the Canal district 
which started with the following paragraphs: ‘‘Bourne, June 27, 1908. Men are digging under the hills 
of Cape Cod, under the river bottom and under the hard pan, to find what will prevent the Cape Cod 
Canal from sinking, once it is dug. Boring into these bottoms and bringing out samples of the sub¬ 
stratum upon which to base calculations to bid for digging the big ditch, has been going forward for 
three weeks under the direction of John F. O’Rourke, President of the O'Rourke Engineering Contracting 
Company of New York.’ 

‘‘It was announced that Mr. O’Rourke stated that he expected to have the contract to dig the canal.” 

The Boston Sunday Post of December 1, 1907, contained a very glowing w r rite-up which concluded 
with the statement that, ‘‘With the opening of the spring, two monster suction dredges will be put in 
operation at each end of this cut, and ere the year is elapsed it is believed that the project will be well 
on towards completion.” 

The following editorial appeared in the Brockton Times of October 13, 1908: 

“Brockton friends were entertained down on Cape Cod Sunday by Thomas A. Norris of this city. 
There had been a bit of a storm down that way and the tide and rain had tom away ten feet of the shore 
nearby. That little gap cut into the coastline by the raging waters constitutes one of the best argu¬ 
ments possible for the construction of the proposed Brockton Ship Canal. 

“If that argument seems a bit far-fetched, here is the explanation. In the days of a recent generation 
geographies referred to the three capes of Massachusetts—Cape Ann, Cape Cod and Cape Malabar. The 
latter has since been washed away by the hungry sea, till all that remains is treacherous Monomoy Point, 


famous for its wrecks and the splendid daring of its life-saving crew. The disappearance of Cape Malabar 
and the nick in the shore near Mr. Norris’s summer cottage are typical illustrations of how Neptune is 
constantly shifting the dry land and the sands of the ocean bed around Cape Cod. Small wonder the 
Cape and all its environments constitute a vast marine graveyard. 

“This constant shift means that the partially constructed Cape Cod Canal will never be the safe, 
practical waterway that the Brockton Canal will some day become. Its approaches will be forever 
subject to blockade and danger from movable shoals, and its bottom cannot help receiving with every 
storm a layer of the same treacherous sand. Even if completed and in use it will be flanked by such 
low shores that vessels passing through will be laid at the mercy of the winds, and it takes no prophet 
to predict that many a wary skipper will round Cape Cod rather than trust his bark to its embrace.” 

In the same publication, under date of October 17, 1908, there also appeared an article from which 
we quote the following abstracts: 

“Plymouth, October 17,1908. The Committee of the United States Board of Engineers for Rivers 
and Harbors arrived here yesterday morning on an early train for the purpose of giving a hearing and 
obtaining a view of the proposed breakwater which it is desired the Government shall build on Brown’s Shoal. 
The work is intended for the protection of the main ship channel, and to prevent the washing in of sand in 
that waterway during the prevalence of southerly and southeasterly gales, as well as for the protection of 
shipping lying in the Cowyard anchorage. 

“The party comprised Lieut.-Col. W. C. Langfitt, Maj. Spencer Cosby, Capt. W. J. Barden and 
A. H. Webber, the secretary of the committee. They were accompanied by Lieut.-Col. Edward Burr, the 
United States Engineer in Boston, in charge of the Government works in Massachusetts, and his assistant, 
Lieut. U. S. Grant, a grandson of President U. S. Grant. 

11 The committee with the Plymouth Board of Selectmen, and a few others, dined at the Plymouth 
Rock House, and at 1.30 p.m. took the tug ‘Mary Arnold’ and made a trip down the harbor, where a stop 
was made at the Cowyard anchorage to give the visitors an opportunity to see what an anchorage it was for 
coastwise commerce, especially if protected by the breakwater. Then they proceeded to the Gurnet, where 
a survey was made at the site of the proposed BARRIER AGAINST THE FURY OF THE SEAS.” 


































































































ABOVE SEA LEVEL 602 FT. 


Ifitpeflor 


IELOW SEA LEVI 


■BELOW SEA LEVEL 

-259-FT; - 


CANADIAN. 


NOKTfiERN 


Canadian 


Ottayrj 


1 906 CROPS 
OATS 72,011 .1 60 BU. 
WHEAT 65*801 .69 1 BU. 


:levat:on 602 


SALOP 


CANADIAN 


ISO^POFS 
WHEAT 77,W6f000 BU. 
OATS 4D,4\f),608 BU. 


nor thern 


SaultSj 


ftulutli 


VRQVETTE 

RANGE 

(iron) 


NORTHERN' 


.Pacific 


MENOI 


RANGE^ 

(.ron) 


1906 CROPS 

i CORN 5A,676,00< 
I OATS 43.747.&OC 
WHEAT 78 . 644 . 96 C 


SAULT 


Menom 


r cOAL PRODUC 

.73,«1' T0KS 


yGreen Ba 


NORTHERN 


906 CROPS 

OATS 91 ,630,000 BU. 
CORN 60,106,732 BU. 




■Ludingt° n 


lluL-oi'- 


grand 


Milwaul 


Madison 


'etroit 


1 toe crops 

CORN 373,275,00 
OATS 1 +0,777,00 


'■on (on 


Thibuc\' 






ST. PAUL 


'CHICAGO 6. 


WABASH 


r AUKEE 


fltsburg 


island. 


CHICAGO 


pacie^c. 


1 1 PI NEP| 


CANAL, 




Council Bluffs 


Omaha 


Ulll'l us 


fa ror lingt on 


CHICAGO 


Burlington 
Ft.Madison 


t PRODUCT 
,600 TONS 


[ej 1906 .COAL PRODUCT 
S2''V o 26,662,960 TONS 


/ Sp r ' n 

T)aytou, 


,L PROOUOT 
376 TONS 


Decatur 


Quincy 


S 1906 OROPS 
88,893, 767 Bt 

S 0,V?6,000 BL 
■ 48,080.928 Bl 


1906 CROPS 
CORN 165,075,000 BU. 
WHEAT 81 ,830,611 BU, 
OATS 24,780.000 BU. 


CORN II 
OATS I 
WHEAT 


\eston ^ 


1905 COAL PRODUCT 
6.623,»7t TOW* 


-j^cBinoi 


PACIFIC 


PRODUCT 
82 TONS 


Kansas City 


"timo* 6 


Louis vil 




Jefferson City 


Evansville 


-L!££water 


SANTA 


PRODUCT 
23 TONS' 


1906 CROP8 
CORN 228,622,60. 

OATS 81,734,90 
WHEAT 14,686,60 


Bowling 


C,J. Peters S Son Co., Map Makers Boston 


ANTIIC 


Copyright, 1 907, New York, Brockton & Boston Canal &. Transportation Co 


Winnipeg 


"\\ \ 


Scale of Miles 


200 


100 


ELEVATIONS OF GREAT LAKES 

-1^ AB£VE J|A_LEVEL_ _ 881 _FT. 6 7£ IlS? (1 tt \\\^ 

A 581 FT. " /^\ _ (YoV 

z\::_zz::ir~-\ _ ^ 

_ I\i- - -A. 4~ -FT .DEEP-247 FT. S, Za,„*„ 

THtcn ijja n j _ \Ujironl _ ”0>_ —__ _ - - -r - •=££ 

T 868 FT.OEEP T _ \_802 FT. 7 _- - 7 - 

- \ - T \ PEEP 7_SEA LEVEL_ Xfntari O 




1906 CROPS 
OATS 46,41 0,000 BU 
WHEAT'41.966,400 BU 


1906 CROP# 

CORN 249,782.»>0 BU 
OATS 72,270.CK)0 BU. 
WHEAT 62,288.1^2 BU. 


Compiled Expressly for 

NEW YORK, BROCKTON AND BOSTON 
CANAL & TRANSPORTATION CO. 

Il.v 

E.B. & C.L. Hayward, Civil Engineers. 
Brockton, Mass. 


LEGEND. 


RAILROADS. 

New York, New Haven & Hartford 
R. R. and Controlled Lines 
Pennsylvania Railroad and Controlled 
Lines 

New York Central & Hudson River 
R. R. and Controlled Lines 
Boston & Maine Railroad and Con¬ 
trolled Lines 

Other Trunk Line Railroads 


* „ / 

I ?/ 7 

/ / 

:/// 


WATER ROUTES. 

Atlantic Coastwise Lines - 

New England Navigation Co. (Long > 
s Island Lines of N. Y., N. H. & > 

H. R. R. Co.) ) 

Merchant & Miners Transportation ) 

Co. (Controlled by N. Y., N. H. > 

& H. R. R. Co. ) 

LAKE ROUTES OF RAILROAD 
SYSTEMS. 

Western Transit Co. and Rutland Transit ) 

Co. (N. Y. Cen. & Hudson River ----- 
Routes ) 

Erie& Western Transportation Co. (Anchor 
Line) Pennsylvania Railroad Route ) 

Other Lake Routes . 

Canals, in Operation 
Canals, Projected 

Bituminous Coal Areas 
Anthracite Coal Areas 
Iron Ore Areas 
Copper Ore Areas 
U. S. Steel Corporation Plants 

1906 COAL SHIPMENTS TO BOSTON 

BITUMINOUS ANTHRACITE 

PORT 

Baltimore, 

Philadelphia, 

Norfolk, Va., 

Newport News, Va., 

Weehawken, N. J. 

Perth Amboy, N. J. 

South Amboy, N. J. 

Guttenburg, N. J. 

Hoboken, N. J, 

Port Johnson, N. J. 

Edgewater, N. J. 

Other Domestic Ports, 

Foreign Ports, 

By All Rail, 

Total, 


TONS 

760,525 

TONS 

None 

589,059 

595,091 

587,218 

None 

799,844 

None 

2,928 

105,634 

1,516 

175,288 

7,806 

164,598 

1,540 

148,927 

None 

134,816 

None 

134,462 

None 

100,579 

23,673 

71,279 

658,072 

None 

87,251 

29,005 

3,517,916 

1,659,679 











































































































































































































library of 































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